Studland Bay is protected from the prevailing southwesterly winds and storms by Ballard Down and Handfast Point, the chalk headland that separates Studland from Swanage Bay to the south. In the 17th century there began a process of sand accumulation in the bay and along the South Haven Peninsula stretching north, resulting in natural land reclamation and the creation or expansion of the bay's beaches and its psammosere (sand dune system).