The proper name is Island and Royal Manor of Portland, but everyone knows it simply as Portland.  We were staying in Weymouth for a few days and thought we'd drive along the unusual Chesil Beach road and at the end of it was Portland.  Not knowing anything about it other than 'its probably where Portland Stone comes from' and 'isn't there a lighthouse here?' we drove round for a while.  It turns out this is our sort of place to visit!  Such a variety of things to see - packed with history, sculptures, trails, and of course the light house, and the views on a clear day are quite spectacular.  You have probably guessed we are rather enthusiastic about Portland.

We don't usually talk about our holidays on our website, so please excuse while we indulge a little.  What started as an accidental visit became our preferred destination for the remainder of our few days away.  On the first day we went to the church of St. George and the many angels in the churchyard seemed to greet us as we walked by.  They positively shone in the brilliant sunshine and blue skies as we walked passed and into the church building.  We came out less than an hour later and everything had turned to grey - quite a shock!  Apparently we were now stood in a cloud and not only could we not see very far away but the sound had changed too - quite eerie when the birds started crowing around us.

We drove to Portland Bill to see the lighthouse but couldn't see it due to the cloud so gave up and went back off the island.  But as we left, the other side of the island was in bright sunshine again.  We went back in the evening and watched the sun set over the sea as waves crashed around us - just a perfect end to the day.

The following day we stopped in the Tourist Information to see what else there was to do and discovered there is a sculpture trail.  We decided to follow this but a bit disappointed to be told there is no leaflet available showing the route to take so we thought we'd do a little of the walk and return another time after finding a route map.  We went along one part, which over looks Chesil Beach, and sat for a while admiring the scenery when, as we were watching, a sea mist totally engulfed the Beach.  It just disappeared.  Even though we were still in sunshine the rest of the world had disappeared.  Now anyone who lives by the sea may be used to this sort of behaviour from the weather but we live in landlocked Swindon and this never happens!  Nature never fails to astound us.

We have wonderful memories of Portland and have included a few of our holiday photos here for our visitors to admire (the island, not our photos!).  Never knew there was so much packed into this small island.

One particular website we found when searching for information about various places we visited on Portland to is the  Portland History  website.  'Wow' is how we describe all the work that has gone into the sight - the sharing of research and photographs is to be aplauded.