Rowbarrow Hundred

Nine Barrow Down is an elongated hill forming the northern ridge of the Purbeck Hills on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. The chalk down is part of the extensive Southern England Chalk Formation. The eastern end of the ridge, which carries the highest point, is also sometimes known as Godlingston Hill. The col of the railway cutting at Harman's Cross means that it has sufficient relative height that it qualifies as a Marilyn. The hill has views to the north across Poole Harbour. On a clear day it is possible to see as far as the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. To the south is the other ridge of the Purbeck Hills including Swyre Head. To the south-east Swanage and its Bay can be seen. Until recently the hill was topped with a trig point, but this has been removed by the farmer with the permission of Ordnance Survey: the trig point and its concrete base can be seen on its side just to the south of the bridleway. The highest point is within a field marked "No public access". It is also the site for the 2 kW Heart South Coast Transmitter on 102.3 and for the NOW Digital Multiplexes.

The Swanage Railway is a railway branch line from near Wareham, Dorset to Swanage, Dorset, England, opened in 1885 and now operated as a heritage railway. The independent company which built it was amalgamated with the larger London and South Western Railway in 1886. The passenger service was withdrawn in 1972, leaving a residual freight service over part of the line handling mineral traffic. After the passenger closure, a heritage railway group revived part of the line; it too used the name Swanage Railway and now operates a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) line which follows the route of the former line from Wareham to Swanage with stops at Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman's Cross and Herston Halt. It provides a regular park-and-ride service, normally steam-hauled, from Norden to the sea at Swanage including Corfe Castle village and ruins of Corfe Castle. In 2023, regular trains ran through from Wareham (with National Rail connections) to Swanage.

Herston Halt railway station is a railway station located at Herston near Swanage, on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. It is an intermediate station on the Swanage Railway, a heritage railway that currently operates from Swanage to Norden (and on special occasions to Wareham ).

Ballard Down is an area of chalk downland on the Purbeck Hills in the English county of Dorset. The hills meet the English Channel here, and Ballard Down forms a headland, Ballard Point, between Studland Bay to the north and Swanage Bay to the south. The chalk here forms part of a system of chalk downlands in southern England, and once formed a continuous ridge between what is now west Dorset and the present day Isle of Wight. Old Harry Rocks, just offshore from the dip slope of the down, and The Needles on the westernmost tip of the Isle of Wight, are remnants of this ridge. The scarp slope of the down faces south, over Swanage, meeting the sea as Ballard Cliff. The down was an area of calcareous grassland for up to 1000 years until World War II, when there was a sudden rise in the need for arable agricultural land. The down is now owned by the National Trust, and has largely been returned to grassland. The National Trust allows grazing on the down to prevent it becoming a natural beech woodland climax community. The obelisk at Ballard Down commemorates the provision of a new supply of drinking water for Swanage in 1883. Erected in 1892 by George Burt, it was taken down in 1941 as it was a landmark that might have aided enemy aircraft during World War II, but was re-erected in 1952. Ballard Down forms the easternmost part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.The BBC's adaptation of EM Forster's novel 'Howards End' (2017) used Ballard Down as a location.

Herston is a western suburb of the town of Swanage, in Dorset, England. It has its own railway station – Herston Halt railway station – on the Swanage Railway. There is a park on Days Road. The Swanage School is in this area.

Agglestone Rock, also known as the Devil's Anvil, is a sandstone block of about 400 tonnes weight, perched on a conical hill, approximately 1-mile (1.6 km) from the village of Studland, south Dorset. Formerly an 'anvil' shape with a flat top, it fell onto one end and side in 1970, leaving the top at an angle of approximately 45°. Legend has it that the devil threw the rock from The Needles on the Isle of Wight with the intention of hitting either Corfe Castle, Bindon Abbey or Salisbury Cathedral. "Aggle" was taken into the old Dorset dialect as meaning "to wobble".

Swanage Grammar School was a former school in Swanage, Dorset, England, established in 1929 (1929). It closed in 1974 (1974). The building is defunct (from 2002) having been used as a centre for outdoor pursuits and geography-based learning. Robert Rochelle managed the centre for the final 16 years. The building is at the northern end of Swanage, at the top of Northbrook Road, 15 minutes walk from the sea.

Swanage Town & Herston Football Club is a football club based in Swanage, Dorset, England. The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association. They are currently members of the Dorset Premier League.

Leeson House is a field studies centre in the village of Langton Matravers in the heart of the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England. The Isle of Purbeck forms part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, designated in 2001. Run as a day and residential centre by Dorset County Council Outdoor Education Service it has been providing environmental education since 1966.

Rempstone Stone Circle (grid reference SY994820) is a stone circle located near to Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck in the south-western English county of Dorset. Archaeologists believe that it was likely erected during the Bronze Age. The Rempstone ring is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3,300 and 900 BC. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that they were likely religious sites, with the stones perhaps having supernatural associations for those who built the circles. Local folklore holds that the stones arrived in their position after being thrown at Corfe Castle by the Devil. A number of these circles were built in the area around modern Dorset, typically being smaller than those found elsewhere. Most of these Dorset circles are made of sarsen stone, although the Rempstone circle is unique in being made from local sandstone. The southern half of the circle has been destroyed, with five upright and three recumbent stones remaining extant. Having been damaged by eighteenth century clay workings, the monument is at present situated within dense woodland. In 1957, a possible avenue of stones leading to the circle was discovered by ploughing but subsequently removed.

Belle Vue Quarry (grid reference SZ014782) is a 3.2 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dorset, notified in 1977. It is used as a roosting site by Greater Horseshoe bats.

Durnford School was an English preparatory school for boys which opened in 1894 on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. The school occupied Durnford House, in the High Street of the village of Langton Matravers near Swanage, and was notoriously spartan and uncomfortable. Ben Macintyre described Durnford as "a traditionally brutal prep school [which] epitomised the strange British faith in bad food, plenty of Latin and beatings from an early age". "Strip and swim" was the morning ritual for the boys – watched by headmaster Thomas Pellatt – into the sea from Dancing Ledge on the coast in 1898. Later, Pellatt had quarrymen blast out a pool in the rocks of Dancing Ledge, for his pupils to swim in. Pellatt, who co-wrote plays that appeared on the London stage under the pseudonym Wilfred T Coleby, published his reminiscences in 1936.The School closed at the onset of the Second World War and the Durnford boys were transferred to another prep school in the village, the Old Malthouse. In 1939 the site became a ramshackle out-station of the Telecommunications Research Establishment, where Britain's radar systems were devised from 1940-42. The school's location is shown on a map of radar sites scattered throughout Dorset during the period.In 1948, when the British army gave it up, Durnford House was acquired by the owners of the Old Malthouse. The main buildings were variously pulled down or sold, leaving the Old Malthouse with the grounds, which were levelled for playing fields. Durnford House itself still stands.