Former HF Houses - Lulworth Cove.
Lulworth is a stunning location and HF had two houses there at one stage. Besides the cove itself there is the spectacular walk along the cliffs to Durdle Door. The walk along the coast in the other direction is closed most of the time, due to the gunnery range, so there aren't any other walks from the house. To get anywhere else you have to go inland to the A352. For this reason I don't think the location is ideal as a centre for walking the wider area.
I had to wait a long time before taking this picture as Lulworth Cove is very busy and there is a continuous stream of people walking past in summer and getting in the way of my picture.
Mill House (now Lulworth Lodge) is the first Lulworth house HF leased. This was no longer a HF house when I was there in 2022. In Autumn 2011 HF took on a 15 year lease on the hotel and branded the cafe as Dandelion Cafe. During 2012 Lulworth Mill House was operating as a normal bed and breakfast, but apparently it started offering HF holidays from Christmas 2012 onwards. It seems far too small to ever be profitable as a HF house, what were they thinking?
West Lulworth House was the second HF house in Lulworth and I think that was used as the main accommodation and Mill House was then the overflow. I stayed there in 2022 just before it closed, by then it was 4-nights only due to staff shortage. I think the upgrade of the restaurant and annex rooms was paid for by a donation from an HF member.
This is the view from my room so I can claim to have had a sea view. I guess the higher rooms would have had a better view.
We could walk directly from the house to Durdle Door. The led walk went inland a bit, parallel to the coast to a tiny church and then back along a cliff path. It doesn't look like it from the picture I took, but Durdle Door was very crowded including a wedding party so I didn't follow them down all those steps. The bride was having a lot of difficultly getting down the steps in a wedding dress.
All along the coast there are other spectacular walks, such as St Alban's Head, but they need transport to go all the way round the gunnery range. Luckily I was on a guided holiday so we had the coach. There is also a lot of WW2 history on this coast such as the radar research station and the observation buildings for the top generals to watch the rehearsals for D-day.
I managed to press the shutter at the exact moment a heritage train was going past Corfe Castle, I usually miss time this sort of shot. There is a lot more of interest around Swanage, Corfe Castle, Old Harry Rocks and the Studland Peninsula. I think Swanage would have been a better base for HF but perhaps they had a bad experience with the HF house in Swanage in 2006-7.
Walking back to the house from Durdle Door on the last day. I think that, if I had been on a 7-night self-guided, I would have done this walk every day.
Looks like your room had a better view than mine but maybe I had better weather?
I do like a room with a view of the sea but I'm too mean to pay for a premium room.
Here is an article about it from the local paper.
I got some information from this page. They have a nice picture of what it looked like in the day with the Dandelion Cafe:
There is another article here, looks like HF sponsored journalists to review it:
I think HF had the freehold to West Lulworth House unlike Mill House:
The reasons HF gave were that the deal HF had for parking opposite were withdrawn (cant have a HF house without a car park - watch out Alnmouth) and also difficulty getting local staff. HF don't let us see the per-house finances.
Other Documents on this site
Click on the following for more information
| Former HF Houses | |
|---|---|
| Conwy (1914- 2011) |  |
| Newlands (1914- 1987) |  |
| Swanage (1947- 1995) |  |
| Isle of Arran (1925- ) |  |
| Scarborough (1954- 1998) |  |
| Lulworth | |
| Beddgelert |  |
| New Inns |  |
| Penrith |  |
| Milford-on-Sea |  |
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About This SiteHere is some history of former HF houses I have visited (there are also some pages about getting to, and walking from, HF houses without using a car). Over the years I have had holidays in houses that HF have closed. I think it would be good if there were somewhere on the HF website where peoples memories could be stored and made available online. I know that HF have a paper history archive at Newfield Hall and there is an online book by Harry Wroe but I would see this as something HF could do which is more of a online community thing. If you find any errors why not let others know by putting a post on the HF Holiday Fans ( unofficial) Facebook forum. I will try to quote such posts here so they don't get lost. |