The town of Swanage, first mentioned in historical texts in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 877, is stated as being the scene of a great naval victory by King Alfred over the Danes: "This year came the Danish army into Exeter from Wareham; whilst the navy sailed west about, until they met with a great mist at sea, and there perished one hundred and twenty ships at Swanwich."

A hundred Danish ships that had survived the battle are driven by a storm onto Peveril Point, a shallow rocky reef outcropping from the southern end of Swanage Bay.