Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle is a village of 1,284 people (2021 census) on the Isle of Purbeck, around four miles south-east of Wareham and four miles north-north-west of Swanage. It stands over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between the two. The ruined castle above it has its own page: see Corfe Castle.

The village is built almost entirely from local grey Purbeck limestone. It has two main streets, East Street and West Street, joined at the Square, and in the Middle Ages it had a considerable marble carving and stone cutting industry. Cafes, shops and toilets are in the village, and Corfe Common, on the edge of the village, is easy to reach on foot with the castle as a backdrop. The Purbeck Way crosses the common on its way to Chapman’s Pool and the South West Coast Path.

The Swanage Railway threads through the same gap and stops in the village. Parking is the main thing to plan for: street parking is limited to one hour, so use the West Street pay and display car park, the National Trust’s Castle View car park, or Purbeck Park, which has space for over 350 cars. If you are staying in the village, you can leave the car and use the No. 40 Purbeck Breezer bus, which runs roughly hourly between Poole and Swanage via Wareham and Corfe Castle.