Alum Chine
A Chine is a deep cleft in the cliffs, running inland from the sea. Alum Chine, with its Victorian Suspension Bridge, tree and rhododendron-lined slopes winding to a large sandy beach, is a particularly fine example of this unusual feature.

Click Here to download our guide, in PDF format, to our lovely local area and explore the walks  described:

• Walk A - The Churchill
  Stroll along Studland Road to the Suspension Bridge spanning the deep, dark Chine from which the young Winston Churchill jumped in order to avoid being caught by his cousins in a childhood game.   Cross the bridge and turn right, following the rhododendron-lined walk around the West Cliffs to one of the best views on the South Coast.  Take a peak at the immaculate Bowling Greens before heading down the zig zag cliff path through Alum Chine’s internationally famous Tropical Gardens.  See Old Harry Rocks through the palm trees, relax with a coffee or ice cream at Alum Chine’s seaside cafés before ambling back along the Chine path and up the steps by the Suspension Bridge, or taking the Alumhurst Road route with the cliff top gardens on your left.

• Walk B - The Promenade
  The quickest route to Alum Chine’s Blue Flag Beach (it has been walked in two minutes, but why rush!).  At the bottom of the hill are the imaginative Children’s Adventure Playground with an abandoned Pirate Ship, Swings and Slides, etc., and the Toddlers Paddling Pool – as well as Bournemouth’s sandiest beach.  Catch the colourful Land Train along the Promenade in summer, passing two more deep green Chines (Middle and Durley) as you go.  Get off at the first Pier, wander by the Bourne Stream through the award winning gardens and pick up the number 24 yellow bus in the square (stop M opposite WH-Smith’s) to come home.

• Walk C - The Secret
  Branksome Dene Chine Blue Flag Beach is just across the border in Poole.  Enjoy walking there via one of the two “secret” entrances marked on our map (or go by car to the one on Pinewood Road) and then stroll back along the Promenade to Alum Chine for a circular walk.  The more energetic can walk straight along the promenade to the exclusive Sandbanks Peninsula and Poole Harbour.

• Walk D - The Chine
  Walk though the woods of Alum Chine (turning Left at its end then Right) to Westbourne Village with its Victorian Arcade, fashionable boutiques and coffee shops.  Westbourne is a 15 to 20 minute walk, alternatively, the number 24 yellow bus will take you there and back.  While in Westbourne, why not take a stroll down Robert Louis Stevenson Avenue to “Skerryvore”, which is the site of the house of Robert Louis Stevenson between 1885 and 1887.  Whilst residing here he wrote Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The house was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War in 1940, but it is now a beautiful public garden with a commemorative statue.