UK Roadtrip ~ Day 8 – Isle of Portland – Military forts & castles roundtrip

DAY 8 ITINERARY

A – Nothe Fort
B – Portland Castle
C – Verne Citadel – ACCIDENT PRISON VISIT!!
D – Fortuneswell Village
E – Rufus Castle / Pennsylvania Castle and scenic coastal walk
F – Portland Lighthouse
G – Blacknor Fort
H – Tout Quarry Sculpture Park
I – Chesil Beach – pebbles!!
J – Sandsfoot Castle

UMMM, I ended up going to a PRISON accidently! I rocked up with my camera on my shoulder only to be told that its not at a tourist attraction, i was actually about to enter a jail!! I turned the car right around pretty quick and sped right out of there 😂 here I am with my 1m x 1m SLR camera at a PRISON! LOL thats not a good look…

Did heaps today! Climbed a lighthouse, worked up a sweat in this hot weather (in october!!??) sweating my ass off its a beautiful day today! So grateful… who would ever have thought that UK weather beats Australia!?

Saw SO much but the total driving time was only 1hr 13mins!

WEYMOUTH HARBOUR

So cute! you can hear the little “ding dings”of some of the boats bells going by and the slight wind blowing the breeze along the water

I was passing by this section of town and i had to stop and take in the view!

Boats coming in and out of the harbour such a buzz in this area but everyone always shouts out “morning!!”

NOTHE FORT

Owned by Weymouth council – £8 – opened at 10:30am so had to wait a bit to be able to enter in

Northe Forte is a Victorian fort built to protect Portland naval harbour – the breakwater around it was built in 1847 to provide a safe harbour and the fort was started in 1859

Quick drive from Oaklands accom to Nothe Fort

These forts were a response to France launching the worlds first armoured battleship and took 12 years to build

The fort has strong granite foundations – the Army left the fort in 1956 and thats when restoration work started

Recreation of how the fort gun floor would have looked like when in operation in 1872 to 1900 the crew worked slept and ate right next to their guns!

This is an anti ship muzzle loading gun used between 1889-1900

Ghost tunnel!

This was fun! part of the underground tunnel was all black and just lit with dull red lights

This is literally all I saw! I spoke to the guys who worked there and apparently there have been ghosts around that area, one of them said that his dog refuses to go into that section – n.b. who knows how much is true! I take everything with a large grain of salt rhese days!

My absolute favourite part of the fort was walking around the whole complex underground in these tunnels

PORTLAND CASTLE

English Heritage – used membership – free car park outside near the castle

Short drive with amazing views! The houses in this area are quite new buildings not the old type architecture

This castle was purpose built as a gun fort made for King Henry VIII in 1539-40 and was meant ro defend Portland harbour

A defnese castle so doesnt have the usual castle look and is quite small and dense looking

The Gunners Hall – this was a communal space for the garrisson where they would eat and relax – in 1545 when this castle was completed there were 15 men who were housed here and worked here

The kitchen – a tudor kitchen until 20th c it was originally divided into 3 areas, the kitchen, pantry and cellar for beer and wine

Portland Harbour was very important and strategic location – if the enemy landed, soldiers and supplies could be ferried ashore for an attack into England

The captain had the whole 1st floor and this room would have been nicely furnished for him – in 17th c captains were very important military men

At the end of the war with france in 1815 the castle was no longer needed as an active coastal fort – it was leased to a local clergyman and he transformed into a residence until 1869

This was their toilet! Called a pivy it would have had a wooden seat with a hole in it and a shaft under the seat to the foreshore where the waste ended up and washed away – they used to use moss or seaweed or grass to wipe

RUFUS CASTLE

CHURCH ORE COVE COASTAL WALK

Rufus Castle Pennsylvania Castle church ruins

Newer style homes being built around this area

PORTLAND LIGHTHOUSE

Climbed the lighthouse had my own guide David who explained everything to me, quite interesting actually! I didnt know that the old light actually floated on mercury! The mercury needs to be changed every 7 years, drained out and new mercury put back in

Until 1996 they had to hand wind the light every 75 mins – now all automated and the new smaller lens were made in australia

Tout Sculpture park

This is an old quarry turned into an art and sculpture area for art students

CHESIL BEACH

Wasnt expecting this! The pebbles all over this beach were huge! Spent some time relaxing and lying on the beach

SANDSFOOT CASTLE

In the real backstreets of the island in narrow roads, found a park and went and explored… they have made a cute little castle park and incorporated the castle into it – the english flowers are all beautiful and colourful at this time

Sandfoot castle – built in 16th c. initally designed to protect the coast against attack fom the french and spanish and was built as a square blockhouse with a facetted gun emplacement – the cliff that its built on is constantly being erroded by the sea, by mid 19 c majority of the gun floor had fallen into the sea – opened to the public 2012 now fenced off due to the erosion

Mainland again…

Back to Weymouth again, had some day light and explored this really nice town, its a port town and has so many cool little back streets and too many pubs for this size town! 🤣 you can tell there is a lot of history here