At Handfast Point are pillars of chalk, formed by wind and waves. Old Harry rock, the Pinnacle and the Haystack. The sea attacks weak points in the chalk and forms caves, then arches until a section of cliff falls. Old Harry's wife at the tip of Handfast point collapsed during a storm in 1896, leaving only the base. Perhaps one of the most interesting local legends from King Alfred's time records that the Danish fleet arrived in a storm and most of their vessels were wrecked. Two of the shipwrecked strangers Earl Harold and his wife; were transformed into rocks, to which their names, are now attached.