Portland

A day out to the Isle of Portland with my sister. It’s a small area - four miles long and less than two miles wide - connected to the mainland by Chesil Beach.

The main image is the current lighthouse at Portland Bill, there are two older ones, one of which is now the famous bird observatory.

Everywhere there are signs of quarrying everywhere you go (extra). Portland stone was used in the construction of the royal palace of Whitehall (and gave it its name) which burnt down in 1698, although the name stuck. Christopher Wren was the MP for the neighbouring town of Weymouth and used the stone for the rebuilding of St Paul’s cathedral and the many churches after the Great Fire of London. It’s been used for many important buildings across the UK since, and for all those war memorials and headstones following the two world wars. A huge amount of this high quality pale oolitic limestone has been quarried and mined, but there are still substantial reserves.

Temporary extras are an inquisitive raven (what a bill), the Pulpit Stone, a view of Chesil Beach from near King Barrow Quarry (now managed by Dorset Wildlife Trust), and a UK border force ship sailing into the port of Portland, once a big Royal Navy facility and now largely used for recreational purposes.,