Hive Beach to Cogden and back over the fields

A 4.2-mile two-hour loop east along the low sandstone cliffs to Cogden Beach, then inland on farm tracks and back through the thatched middle of Burton Bradstock. Flat by Dorset standards, 90 metres of climb, and the cliff path is grass over crumbling rock with no fence. Start at the National Trust Hive Beach car park, pay and display and free to members, which takes about 150 cars and empties onto a single lane, so aim to arrive before ten in August. The clifftop and Cogden fields are open all year with cattle in places, and while there is a dog water bowl outside the Hive Beach Café the beach itself falls under the Dorset Council seasonal order, signed at the slipway.