Portland

Portland is an island in the south of England. People have lived there since the Stone Age. Now it is a very attractive tourist location. We went to see Portland Castle and ended up staying for the whole day because it was so lovely and we had so many things to see.

The first stop on our trip was at Portland Castle. This is one of Henry VIII’s coastal artillery forts, which is protected by English Heritage.

This is called, confusingly for visitors, the Gun Room. Once it had a roof, so it was a room at one point. By the look of it now, one can easily assume that this was always just a platform for guns and nothing more.

This is a replica of a Tudor kitchen.

Just before leaving Portland castle we were told by a very friendly and helpful lady what is more to visit on the island. At that point we’ve decided to go and explore the rest of the island instead of visiting what we had on our list. It was a very good choice as we saw plenty of fascinating stuff.

This is the view from the prison. It is a working prison, but they have a cafe for the public, where inmates work to learn skills and get a qualification to help them when they are out. I did not want to intrude and didn’t take any pictures indoors. The ladies working there were very nice and I hope they will have a bright future ahead.

This view made us think of Marseille.

High Angle Battery was one of those places we wouldn’t have thought of going. It’s definitely a place only a local would recommend. It is a late Victorian, 1890s, gun battery. It was used for a short period because ships developed very fast making a battery like this one obsolete. It was only functioned for 10 years. It was used for storage during the world wars.

This long tunnel was very dark. I missed the rooms and just as I was about to exit I realised the rooms were there, so I went back to see them. The rooms were huge. I understand why this was used for storing guns, it was a really good place to do that, underground, encased in concrete, and hard to find by enemy planes.

These are the rooms. The picture was taken while my husband had the flashlight of his phone on. It was pitch dark otherwise.

We stopped at a cafe for a coffee and saw a dog menu. Impressively, the menu had real food, like pie for dogs. I loved that. The pie was a sort of meat (lamb, maybe) and mint. I think Festus would have loved that as he was very keen on mint.

Next on the list was the Tout Quarry Sculpture Park & Nature Reserve. As the name suggests, this is in an old abandoned quarry. The sculptures are so interesting.

St George’s Church dates back to mid-1700s. It replaced a previous church, St Andrew’s, which possible dates back to Saxon times. The “new” St Andrew’s was built in the 11th century on top of the old church. It was raided by the French in 1340 and 1404 and was rebuilt. Landslides damaged the church so much that it had to be replaced with the one that is standing today – St George’s. It was designed by architect and quarry merchant Thomas Gilbert.

The commemorative circle was created by volunteers in 2020. It is made out of damaged headstones following the bombing on 2 July 1942.

It was heart-warming to see the tree decorated in the Ukrainian colours. This was a place reserved for remembering the victims of war, in Ukraine, and in other places, like Syria.

Portland Bill Lighthouse & Visitor Centre was the last stop on our trip. It is 41 metres tall and one needs to climb 155 steps to get to the very top of the Lantern Room. We’ve decided not to go up, as there was restricted access due to it being an working lighthouse.

Fleet lagoon is the place where the a bouncing bomb, developed for the Dambusters raid during WW2, was tested. We took a photograph of it from the car, while we were driving away from Portland. Portland still has a lot of places left to discover, so I would gladly visit it again.