Swanage, the Great Globe and Peveril Point – The Real Locations Behind The Monument Murders
Swanage is a real seaside town on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, home to the Great Globe near Durlston Castle and the headland of Peveril Point, and it's the setting for The Monument Murders, book 4 in my Dorset Crime series. Here's why the Globe was the obvious place for a body, and how I got soaked researching the book.
Why Swanage?
I love Swanage. I've been visiting the town since the seventies, paddling in the sea, exploring the back streets behind the main part of town, and climbing the cliffs up towards Ballard Down and Peveril Point.
Surprisingly, I hardly ever visited the Globe as a child. I'm not sure why; you'd expect it to be a regular stop on the Swanage tourist trail. Maybe it's because our caravan was in Wareham, and if it wasn't sunny we'd head inland or stay indoors. Swanage was for sunny days, and the beach.
But it was something I was always aware of. You can't enter a gift shop in Swanage without seeing postcards of the Great Globe and Durlston Castle behind it.
What is the Great Globe in Swanage?
The Globe was built by George Burt, the 'King of Swanage', between 1886 and 1887. He was a keen astronomer and built the Globe as a sort of planetarium in reverse. Instead of sitting inside it and looking up at images of the stars, you could walk around it and look at the images etched into its surface.
If you like quirkiness and a bit of geekiness rolled in, you'll love the Globe. It weighs forty tons, is ten feet in diameter, and is constructed from Portland Stone. It's set into the hillside in a way that's annoyingly asymmetrical. Try and photograph it, and you'll never get the perfect angle.
Given all that, and its shape, it was an obvious spot to dump a body. And that's how The Monument Murders begins: with a body spreadeagled over the Globe, and DCI Lesley Clarke called in to investigate.
Researching The Monument Murders at Peveril Point
When I was writing The Monument Murders, I realised that the version of Peveril Point I was writing about was quite different from the one I remembered from the eighties. I needed to be sure of the terrain before I could write some key scenes. So at two days' notice, I took myself down to Swanage to explore.
Unfortunately, I didn't check the weather forecast first.
It was blowing a gale when I arrived in Swanage, and the town was deserted. I darted out of my car and grabbed my waterproof jacket and trousers from the boot. Then I trudged up the hill towards the point, trying not to worry about the way the wind was trying to blow me off the cliff.
Half an hour later, I'd recorded a face-to-camera video in which you can't hear my voice over the wind, and I was soaked through.
The rain had made its way through a hat, two waterproof jackets and a hood, my walking trousers and my waterproof trousers over them. I didn't fancy sitting in the car back to my hotel and dripping all over the seat, so I headed into town and made for Love Cake, where I knew I could get a cuppa and some cake.
It turned out that the whole of Swanage had the same idea. Sensible people. I shared a table with two men who'd retired to Swanage and tried to talk me into doing the same, then said my reluctant goodbyes and headed back out into the rain. They must have thought I was mad.
Can you walk to Peveril Point?
Yes, and it's one of my favourite spots in Swanage. It's an uphill walk from the crowded beaches and town centre, and always quiet even in the height of summer. When I was a teenager and wanted to get away from my family, I used to take myself off for a wander towards Peveril Point, clambering over rocks and into occasional caves before ascending to the cliffs at the top.
It's also where some of the action in the book takes place. And thanks to that soggy research day, I knew exactly how the wind would feel and which paths Lesley and her team would take.
Worth getting soaked for, I reckon.
Read more
New to the series? Start with The Corfe Castle Murders, or get the prequel novella The Ballard Down Murder free.
