My Trip To Portland
The Isle of Portland. Never a place I heard of let alone considered visiting until a spontaneous weekend away with my parents to Weymouth took place at the beginning of the month. Yet now, this beautiful island is one of my new favourite places and we have already planned to go back during the warmer months to explore the island even more. We didn't get out and explore a lot of the island due to the freezing weather we had and the fact we only had under a day to look around before we had to leave to go home but, the areas we did visit I wanted to share.
About Portland
Portland is connected to the mainland, Abbotsbury, by Chesil Beach, another must visit. The famous Portland Limestone is quarried there and was used to help build St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. For the geography fans out there, the island is at the central part if the jurassic coast along with being the home to a range of flora and fauna. The wildlife varies from dolphins and seals to a wide number of bunnies and the wildflowers and grasses make a great habitat for butterflies. Another reason why I want to visit during the warmer months, who doesn't love butterflies and bunnies? Portland has an endless amount of coastal and nature walks all across the island with multiple viewpoints and natural attractions to stop and marvel at. The Isle of Portland is made up of 12 villages that each have their own features suitable for every type of visitor. With multiple hotels, cafes, walks and shops to explore, it really is an island to get lost on. Can you tell I fell in love with this island?
Where we went and what we did
One of the first places we stopped was at the Olympic rings which had a great view out to Chesil beach. For those of you who do not know, Chesil beach is famous due to having a 29 kilometre tombolo filled with the most beautiful looking pebbles. It was difficult not to be amazed by the view even if it was grey and cold. Opposite the rings is a hotel with places to stop and eat so perfect pit stop to take Instagram pictures (we do live in the digital age after all)!
Behind the Olympic rings was the memory stones. For those of you who follow me on Instagram would have seen that I made my parents have a look due to the 'witchy' elements that the stones have. The memory stones consist of 12 of the largest stones from Portlands open cast queries and were carefully positioned to work out the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes and the Summer and Winter Solstices. The stones had great details on them from fossils to simply the effect quarrying had on them. I personally would have loved to have done a grounding meditation in the middle of the stones if it wasn't so cold, maybe next time! Would love to also see these stones as the sun is setting. I feel that would make the most amazing images.
Obviously after seeing the views of Chesil beach we had to stop and take closer pictures. Personally I don't like walking across pebbled beaches and climbing the pebble wall that starts the beach at Portland wasn't easy or very fun, it was worth it to see the beautiful blue waters and the vast length that the beach stretches. You can easily see why it becomes so popular in the summer, even if it won't be comfy to sunbathe on.
Further up on the island we went to Fancys community farm. We didn't go into the farm but we did get to see a few animals whilst we turned around. The farm is free to look around and dogs are welcome.
The area we spent most of our time at was Portland Bill. Portland Bill is right at the top of the island and is home to the light house, has its own visitor centre (where I got an onyx dinosaur because we are at the jurassic coast after all) along with a small cafe which is a great place to warm up or simply get one of their takeaway scones, how British! We spent most of our time here due to the great views of the sea and, due to the bad weather we were having, the amazing splashes against the rocks which led to LOADS of videos and pictures filling up all of our phones and cameras. Highly recommend going during a storm just to see this. Obviously stay away from the edges that has no fencing if you are going in this weather, the winds are very strong and its easy to get away from the path and get stuck.
Pulpit Rock was unfortunately not somewhere we went up to simply due to being so cold and the wind being so strong but we did get to see it from a distance and can see why so many people venture over to take pictures.
Jail House Cafe. I know what you are thinking. Why did you go to a prison cafe? Because why not?! Portland does have both a prison and a detention centre but until July this year (2018) the prison is not used as a prison due to changes between the prison and the detention centre. Although the drive to the cafe and the surrounding area looks very dodgy with the abandoned buildings that look like scenes from The Walking Dead but the cafe itself has the most amazing views and very tasty and filling foods. Unfortunately we didn't take any images from the cafe expect for the buildings simply due to being so hungry and talking to the super friendly staff that work their filling up our times. The cafe sells artwork and branded merchandise like t-shirts, pens and even jams/chutneys to help support Expia. Expia is a charitable company that supports and staffs risked assessed prisoners to help them once they are released. I think Expia is a great charity as it helps to reduce the chances of prisoners competing another crime. I highly recommend checking out their website to get more information and we have already said we will eat there again on our next visit - http://jailhousecafe.co.uk
So that was our trip to the Isle or Portland, have you ever been to Portland?
I can't wait to go again and will obviously share what else we get up to.
Talk to you later x
Portland is connected to the mainland, Abbotsbury, by Chesil Beach, another must visit. The famous Portland Limestone is quarried there and was used to help build St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. For the geography fans out there, the island is at the central part if the jurassic coast along with being the home to a range of flora and fauna. The wildlife varies from dolphins and seals to a wide number of bunnies and the wildflowers and grasses make a great habitat for butterflies. Another reason why I want to visit during the warmer months, who doesn't love butterflies and bunnies? Portland has an endless amount of coastal and nature walks all across the island with multiple viewpoints and natural attractions to stop and marvel at. The Isle of Portland is made up of 12 villages that each have their own features suitable for every type of visitor. With multiple hotels, cafes, walks and shops to explore, it really is an island to get lost on. Can you tell I fell in love with this island?
Where we went and what we did
One of the first places we stopped was at the Olympic rings which had a great view out to Chesil beach. For those of you who do not know, Chesil beach is famous due to having a 29 kilometre tombolo filled with the most beautiful looking pebbles. It was difficult not to be amazed by the view even if it was grey and cold. Opposite the rings is a hotel with places to stop and eat so perfect pit stop to take Instagram pictures (we do live in the digital age after all)!
The area we spent most of our time at was Portland Bill. Portland Bill is right at the top of the island and is home to the light house, has its own visitor centre (where I got an onyx dinosaur because we are at the jurassic coast after all) along with a small cafe which is a great place to warm up or simply get one of their takeaway scones, how British! We spent most of our time here due to the great views of the sea and, due to the bad weather we were having, the amazing splashes against the rocks which led to LOADS of videos and pictures filling up all of our phones and cameras. Highly recommend going during a storm just to see this. Obviously stay away from the edges that has no fencing if you are going in this weather, the winds are very strong and its easy to get away from the path and get stuck.
Jail House Cafe. I know what you are thinking. Why did you go to a prison cafe? Because why not?! Portland does have both a prison and a detention centre but until July this year (2018) the prison is not used as a prison due to changes between the prison and the detention centre. Although the drive to the cafe and the surrounding area looks very dodgy with the abandoned buildings that look like scenes from The Walking Dead but the cafe itself has the most amazing views and very tasty and filling foods. Unfortunately we didn't take any images from the cafe expect for the buildings simply due to being so hungry and talking to the super friendly staff that work their filling up our times. The cafe sells artwork and branded merchandise like t-shirts, pens and even jams/chutneys to help support Expia. Expia is a charitable company that supports and staffs risked assessed prisoners to help them once they are released. I think Expia is a great charity as it helps to reduce the chances of prisoners competing another crime. I highly recommend checking out their website to get more information and we have already said we will eat there again on our next visit - http://jailhousecafe.co.uk
So that was our trip to the Isle or Portland, have you ever been to Portland?
I can't wait to go again and will obviously share what else we get up to.
Talk to you later x
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