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Overview of Ringstead
Ringstead, on the coast of Dorset, England, provides excellent cliff soaring conditions for hang gliders (in strong winds) and paragliders (lighter winds). However, it is potentially dangerous and you need to become familiar with the club site guide and associated rules before flying there.
Therefore, although this page contains some flying information, it should not be used as a flying site guide, but more as a sight-seeing guide.
It contains photos I took on the ground and in the air specifically for this page and some additional flying photos that already appear on other pages.
View from the top
Top landing approach in 2015
This view takes in the take off hill (some distance inland from the cliff, which is out of view) and the public parking area with the top landing field (nearest the camera) separated from the car park by a hedge.
The notice in the following close-up is visible at lower left in the top landing approach photo.
Notice board by the track on the hill top in 2017
From the public car park at the top of the hill you can hike downhill along a partly forested trail to the beach or you can go straight ahead to the cliff top.
Looking south-east in 2017
The building on the right in the middle distance is the farm house surrounded by a rectangular hedge at upper right in the following photo.
Flying at Ringstead in 2015
The wooden building at left in the following photo is the one with the grey roof by my right elbow in the aerial view.
Wooden buildings, trees, and cliffs in 2017
The navy helicopter base on Portland island, visible some miles off shore, was closed some years ago, but ships and boats of all kinds – sometimes including warships – can often be seen in the bay.
Ship in the bay in May, 2017
The path to the beach is steep enough in places to have wooden steps added. In winter it tends to be slippery with mud.
One of several wooden bridges on the track from the hill to the beach
This trail is great for your impromptu Vietnam War re-enacting.
Ringstead cliffs seen from ground level
The public path along the top of the cliff gets too close to the edge for comfort, in my opinion.
View along the cliff in 2015
When the wind takes on a more southerly direction, you can fly to Lulworth Cove and beyond. However, emergency landing options are either limited or nonexistent for much of the route.
RAF Ringstead
The emergency bottom landing field is – or was – RAF Ringstead; a radar site during World War 2 and a radio communications site during the Cold War.
Looking north past the radar bunker entrance in 2017
The radar room (the transmitter block) is locked, but a sign near the entrance includes a diagram and some explanation. In this photo, vehicles parked on the hill top, from where we launch, are visible in the distance.
Close-up of the radar room notice in 2017
After photographing the radar bunker and its notice, I turned to face north-west along the field and took the following photo of the hang glider emergency bottom landing field:
Ringstead emergency bottom landing field in 2017
The field slopes slightly away from you – you always land in the direction the camera is looking – but I never heard of anyone running out of room. Here are some photos of an approach and landing after I failed to obtain enough height to safely test the lift at the cliffs without risking a beach landing, which you must avoid if possible.
“Ringstead approach control, request a ‘straight in’ on runway four-five.”
The WAAF in the bunker, a clone of Susannah York in the 1968 film The Battle of Britain, cleared my request for a ‘straight in’ approach. Or so I imagined…
Unzipping the harness
If you are unfamiliar with hang gliding equipment, it is worth mentioning that even with the harness unzipped (by pulling a chord) I am held in securely with leg loops and a chest strap all with strong buckles.
Rounding out at RAF Ringstead in 2017
I landed where the darker grass clumps can be discerned in the photo taken from my ground camera. (About where I placed my copyright notice.) They are less than a third the way along the field.
Ringstead Bay c.1970 © Copyright Ronald Searle
RAF Ringstead continued to be used after World War 2 and into the cold war against the Soviet Union. Its aerials were rebuilt as part of a ‘Tropospheric Scatter System’, linking the United States Air Force command bunker at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, with sites in Spain, Morocco, and at Wheelus Field near Tripoli in Libya. These aerials, said to be 150ft high, were decommissioned in 1970 and dismantled in 1974 — just a few years before hang gliders started flying there and using the transmitter block field for emergency bottom landings.
The photo of Ringstead Bay in about 1970 is by Ronald Searle (licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence). I increased its size by 50 percent to make it clearer on modern monitors.
Earlier photographs show the taller and more conventional looking radar masts sited a bit more inland than these more substantial aerials appear to be. The National Trust artwork shows two pairs of aerials of different construction; for transmitting and receiving of radar rather than the later communication aerials.
Position of Ringstead aerials satellite view in 2018
The aerials were at the front (seaward) edge of the two fields bounded and bisected with rows of trees to the left of the label The Kiosk – Ringstead in the satellite image. (That is, with the tan field above and a tan field on their right.) They were some distance from the transmission block, labelled Ringstead Radar Station.
Internal links
Unexplained lift at Ringstead, August 8th, 2013
External links
RAF Ringstead Radar defence, March 2009 in Derelict Places, including a close-up colour photo of the masts taken in 1965, and another bunker hidden in the woods. (As of late 2019, the photos there have been blurred by the hosting service.)
Ringstead Bay c.1970 including the colour photo of the aerials taken from the main cliff by Ronald Searle
Ringstead Bay photos on Francis Frith web site
