Sunday, March 11, 2012

Royal opening of Durlston

On 12 March, HRH Princess Anne will be officially opening Durlston Castle, the building will therefore be closed to the public until 2.30pm
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28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Her title is HRH The Princess Royal, and not Princess Anne.

12/3/12 11:23 am
Anonymous said...

I hope they have made massive improvements since I was there on Wednesday. It was woeful, and the staff weren't great.

12/3/12 9:44 pm
Anonymous said...

@9:44 Were your expectations unrealistic? Why did you find it 'woeful'?

13/3/12 1:47 pm
Anonymous said...

Were your expectations unrealistic? Why did you find it 'woeful'?

Well some of the exhibits (if thats the right word) weren't finished and the one in the dark room which lights up different fossils in a big rock didn't work.

Unless I missed it there was no history of the castle and the globe, which I thought would have been there somewhere.

£7.50 for a days parking? A slap in the face for any visitors.

At the entrance to the pathway to the castle was a bloody great industrial waste bag. Also the gas pen where it is, undiguised looks ugly.

The restuarant is over-priced. £3 for a bowl of chips which ammounted to about a dozen chips. Staff were rude and seemed in a rush to get rid of people (bought a bill to our table before we'd asked for it or were ready to leave)

Also seems to over price the people who are going for a walk and just want a sandwich and a drink. I think it was £7.50 for a sandwich. Laughable.

So no, I don't think my expectations were unrealistic, I didn't go with any expectations?

1:47, do you work there?

13/3/12 3:00 pm
Reece de Ville said...

I popped up when it first re-opened and I liked the look of the space - but it still needed a lot of work. However, if they can get the ampitheatre space sorted and regular gigs then it could be a winner as an alternative entertainment venue.

However, parking at £7.50 is outrageous. Particularly if you've driven there especially for a meal. Also, I too have heard nothing but negative comments about the staff - turfing mothers and babies out as they desperately want the restaurant to be exclusive - hence the pricing.

Real real shame - because the restaurant really needs a good name amongst Swanage locals to succeed as they won't get large bookings from miles away due to the parking prices. And walkers really only want a sandwich, or hot quick bite, before setting off again.

They need home cooked friendly food in the day time - National Trust cafe like - and then a nice restaurant in the evening.

Maybe a change of supplier will help lift the name of the venue again. It does make me wonder how they'll survive as a volunteer based outfit - surely it needs to be a National Trust venue to bring in regular visitors/bookings? It'll help keep pricing regular also and the restaurant would be answerable to the Trust.

13/3/12 4:08 pm
Anonymous said...

turfing mothers and babies out? Seriously? If true that is beyond disgraceful.

And they really have over-estimated what many of their customers, especially those around the area in the daytime, will want in terms of food or drink.

13/3/12 4:13 pm
Anonymous said...

I remember just a few years back when it was a good place to have a meal, or drink, either before or after a walk. Oh, and the car parking was free.

Progress, or Council interference ?

13/3/12 5:46 pm
Anonymous said...

Anyone see the TV News coverage of HRH opening Durlston ? NO..(There was none).
What of Weymouth when HRH visited the renovated White Horse on the hill in chalk ? YES..It had several minutes on the local news.

The Public Relations Team are much more switched on in Weymouth, The White etc.

Does PDC have a PR Team?

RobO

13/3/12 5:56 pm
Anonymous said...

"parking at £7.50 is outrageous"

And this explains why there are parking restrictions planned for Lighthouse Road! If only the country park had been transparent from the start why the parking restrictions are needed - yes it is to make their lives easier because at £7.50 a pop I suspect car drivers will be tempted to aprk on Lighthouse Road for free instead.

DCC have got to fund the running of the castle somehow.

13/3/12 5:57 pm
Anonymous said...

DCC have got to fund the running of the castle somehow.

They'd probably do better by having reasonable parking charges and not putting people off.

If I go there for a meal with more than four friends, and we go in two cars then on top of paying over the odds for the food, between us we'd pay £15 on parking.

I couldn't afford to tip my waitress even if they did somehow deserve it.

13/3/12 6:45 pm
Anonymous said...

@3.00pm "Do you work there?"

No! Just interested in the details behind your comments.

13/3/12 7:13 pm
Robin from Swanage said...

There was very little publicity about Princess Anne's visit. One of my friends took a picture of her with the Mayor, his wife and a few others. Princess Anne has a busy schedule. A lot of people in Swanage would have liked to see her.

The manageress of the Look Out Cafe at Durlston is now running the National Trust Cafe at Corfe Castle. I expect a lot of people would like to see the cafe coming back. 7thwave has come about 14th out of the 26 restaurants in Swanage in Trip Adviser so some people like it. I wonder if Princess Anne or HRH The Princess Royal had anything to eat there or if the manager spoke to her.

13/3/12 11:19 pm
Anonymous said...

HRH wouldn't be paying £7.50 for a sarnie or £3 for a dozen chips though.

Bet it was all gratis.

Expect she didn't even have tp pay the £7.50 parking charge for her helicopter.

13/3/12 11:44 pm
Nickthefish said...

(when) is the Durlston bus route restarting?

14/3/12 8:32 am
Robin from Swanage said...

Instead of having a bus service to Durlston there is going to be a train service. A local woman is going to run a land train. This will be a Land Rover diguised as an engine pulling some trucks like the Dotto Train on Bournemouth sea front. There was no bus service last year because of the delay in opening the castle.

15/3/12 7:52 am
Nickthefish said...

So the logic in spending £5.5M then stopping the bus servive? Will this land train be accessable to disabled folk? And the route?

15/3/12 8:58 am
Robin from Swanage said...

In 2010 Discover Dorset ran an excellent minibus service from Swanage to Durlston every half hour. About 10,000 people used the service but this was not enough to make it viable. If the castle had opened in 2011 more people would have used the service so the bus company would have continued to run it. The castle opened in November 2011 and the proposal to run a land train has put a spanner in the works because there is not enough demand for two services. My view is that the land train will not succeed because it will be unable to negotiate the traffic in Swanage or to cope with the hills. I expect the land train will be a flop and we will end up with no bus service this year. If there was a half hourly bus service and the restaurant at Durlston got its act together the castle would be a huge success.

15/3/12 12:46 pm
Nickthefish said...

yes the D1 service was much loved, but as with anything else in Swanage it takes three years to become established

15/3/12 4:11 pm
Anonymous said...

Robin - the D1 was funded by the country park/DCC. It is the country park and DCC who have chosen not to fund a bus service. Nick is absolutely spot on - open the castle and not provide a bus service is bonkers. But then again so is charging £7.50 to park. The land train sounds fun but frankly will not be sustainable. How DCC managed to spend so much money creating this "attraction" but without having to provide a bus service is beyond me. Wonder what the Transport Impact Assessment which was submitted with the planning application said.

15/3/12 9:17 pm
Robin from Swanage said...

If the land train is unsuccessful the bus link from Swanage to Durlston will be reintroduced.

16/3/12 9:33 am
Anonymous said...

£7.50 for parking, £7 for the Ferry, or don’t come to Purbeck and use the £14.50 towards a crab lunch at Loch Fyne Canford Village.

16/3/12 11:24 am
Anonymous said...

According to DCC, the plan is for the Durlston bus to start May 27th and run until the end of September.

16/3/12 12:08 pm
Anonymous said...

Looking forward to visiting in May and walking from Langton to the Castle and then getting the train or bus to Swanage. Will give the £7.50 ham sandwich a miss though ! Better to save that for a pint and a bite at the Square and Compass.....
If everyone ignores the expensive snack nosh they will either get the message or go out of business. Either way things will improve.

16/3/12 1:15 pm
Robin from Swanage said...

According to the Gazette HRH enjoyed a delicious meal at the Seventhwave restaurant.

16/3/12 4:33 pm
herston rover said...

Ah......but she wouldn't have been paying.....

17/3/12 5:55 pm
Robin from Swanage said...

Did HRH The Princess Royal have a food taster? I have heard that she arrived at 14:30 and lots of children had been waiting for one and a half hours but she did not go up to them. She probably would have if she had known they had been waiting. I cannot remember car parking being free at Durlston. Perhaps that was before they built the visitors' centre. Lots of people park near Bon Accord Road to avoid paying for parking. Someone said that HRH is getting old now but she is younger than most of the people who have retired to Swanage.

18/3/12 1:10 pm
Durlston Country Park said...

As one of the Rangers at Durlston, I thought I might be able to shed some light on this discussion. Our Parking charges are currently £2 all day/£1 for 2 hours during the week and £3 all day/£2 for 2 hours and £1 for an hour at weekends. These will change to our summer rates from Easter - details on our website, but the highest rate for a day will be £5. This has remained unchanged for several years, including after the increase in VAT. There is no £7.50 charge, or any plans to introduce one.

Car Park income is essential to minimise the running costs of the Park to tax-payers. Our hope is that the Castle will generate income to help support the Park, through events, hire, the restaurant and shop, reducing reliance on Car Park charges in the long term.

We are still in negotiations for funding, but we hope that the shuttle bus will return this summer. The land train is unlikely to happen this year, but may happen in the future.

From Easter, in addition to the restaurant, a new kiosk will be offering snacks and drinks, while the Belvedere will be used at busy periods as a tea and coffee room.

As always, if you want to check any information, or would like to know anything about what is going on, or planned, please get in touch with us, or have a look at our website – we are always happy to help.

Ali Tuckey
Countryside Ranger
Durlston Country Park NNR

25/3/12 1:19 pm
Anonymous said...

Swanage Town Council seems to have learnt its lesson regarding operating catering establishments. The days of them running the ice cream huts on the beach (closed one hour for lunch and on bank Holidays); and the mindless expenses at the Vista bar seem to have done the trick.
Not so DCC. Up at Durlston they HAD a busy cafe serving tea and coffee, sandwiches, ices and the like. Then they brilliantly decided to let a restaurant up there; but with no account of the displacement of their old clientele. So what do they do? They allow a caravan outside the new £5M restoration that looks like at should be on a B road layby next to a toilet block. No seating. That IS tacky Dave. Why not do something like the National Trust have done at middle beach, they aren't short of space up there?

1/4/12 10:08 am

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