A real Broadchurch cliffhanger! Chalet that featured in ITV crime hit is just 15 feet away from 140ft drop after recent rockfalls

A quaint chalet that featured in a hit ITV crime drama is now just 15ft away from the edge of a cliff, following severe rockfalls in the area.  

The wooden lodge at Eype, near West Bay in Dorset, which was the scene the murder in series one of Broadchurch, is now on the cliff edge of the UNESCO World Heritage Jurassic Coast.

The phenomenal natural cliffs, which stand at 140ft tall and more than 180 million year old have recent lost huge chunks of rock due to being battered by bad weather.

In shots from the show you can clearly see the cast of Broadchurch, including the tenth Doctor Who David Tennant and Academy Award winner Olivia Coleman, standing on a piece of land beneath the chalet which is no longer there.

Local landowners the Wingfield-Digbys, who have owned and used the cabin since 1930, have tried for almost a decade to relocate the hut inland. 

But their proposal angered nearby holiday home owners who claimed the new location will obscure their sea views. 

A narrow road leading to the chalet is now also on the brink of oblivion.

Local photographer Graham Hunt said: 'It has been getting closer and closer to the cliff over the years and with one big landslip the chalet could fall into the sea.

'There have been so much storms over the winter which have eroded away the cliffs making them unstable.

'Foundations were built for the chalet in a car park three or four years ago but they have been covered up again.

'I believe the chalet was re-roofed a couple of years go so it doesn't look like any relocation is happening soon.'

The latest landslip at Eype comes days after thousands of tonnes of rocks, including boulders the size of double decker buses, tumbled last Tuesday at nearby Burton Bradstock. 

There have also been multiple rock falls at West Bay, where tourists often ignore safety warning signs to sunbathe under the 140ft sandstone cliffs.

They have taken a large bite out of the land at the top and brought the South West Coast Path and one of the fairways of the Bridport & West Dorset Golf Club closer to the precipice.

Geologist Richard Edmonds believes the rockfalls were a consequence of global warming.

He said: 'We are experiencing extreme weather both in terms of the waves and rainfall.

'A warmer atmosphere carries more water and more energy and that's what drives storms. The energy in the atmosphere is transferred into wind and rain.

'Because there is so little beach at West Bay the sea undermines the base of the cliffs so the more powerful the waves are, the more it is undermined.'

A Dorset Council spokesperson said: 'Rockfalls and landslips can happen at any time. If people are out on the coast then they should take notice of warning signs and keep to existing paths and stay away from the edge and the base of cliffs.'

In 2012 tragic holidaymaker Charlotte Blackman was crushed to death by a rockfall at Burton Bradstock.