Portland Screensaver, unique!

Chesil Beach - the Fleet

Portland is a great place and something we Portlander's never tire of seeing it around us, some may and I am about to make that worse... ;o)

A few years ago I had a bit of a pickle in life, my ex landlord illegally evicted me, you Portlander's know this bully... anyway needing to do something about it and fast I and some great friends who were a massive help created something unique... 

Portland's Ope cove, pebble gardens and castles

Gateway to Church Ope Cove

Portland's Rufus castle stands above Church Ope cove, a small beach which is a dot on the landscape in comparison to Chesil beach, though it is one of Portland's secret treats of which mostly locals use.

Lucky us!

A small cove surrounded by cliffs and two castles plus a 13th century church ruins, hence the name.

Rufus castle, the drawbridge of which you see here atop the arch is the old castle, a ruin really, you walk under this arch to get to the top of the 152 (I think) steps leading down to the cove and beach.

The other is Pennsylvainia castle sat to the right and on the main road to this castle.

Portland Bill and Chesil beach battered by storms

Portland Bill like the rest of the country had a bit of a battering weather wise this weekend.

Portland and the south coast in general had some flood warnings issued over the weekend and with the wind helping the sea along it was a wise move.

The main causeway connecting Portland to the mainland known as "beach road" is pretty vulnerable to flooding in high winds.

Annoyingly my own rechargeable batteries for my camera ran out so a old friend who took these great pictures has allowed me to share them with you all.

Thank you to the lovely Serena for allowing me to share...

As you can see from the first picture the waves were very long and crashing in hard on the pebbles, this beach being made wholly of pebbles itself is part of the reason we get flooding as the beach tends to move in and upwards.

On any other day you will notice the beach steps up as the beach gets higher, the tiers are non existent in this kind of weather, as you see below taken slightly further back from the first one.

This untamed wind topped 80 mph at least, I'd say it got to 90mph at times out there, indeed my son had trouble staying on his feet.

Although he had never seen this so rough, the last time I remember it getting this bad was 1989, or thereabouts.

The boats had been moved off the beach and placed on the wall itself or behind the wall for better shelter.

With this second picture you an clearly just how far up the beach the waves are going, and with only the beach stopping it going over onto the street where I live and the beach road itself it's no surprise the place was reinforced 20 years ago near the Cove inn and behind my own home.

Facing the waves from the vantage point where Serena took the pictures you are looking at this coming towards you, crashing against the sea wall itself, where people usually walk, (it was closed by the coastguard) and you will get WET here!

Serena also went out to Portland Bill no doubt to show her kids the things we grew up seeing, what makes Portland so great in stormy weather.

It's the Portland we get to respect when she shows her true power.

As you an see below the crane itself is dwarfed by the crashing waves.

Portland UK : Church Ope cove beach

The secluded beauty of this beach means it's rarely full in the summer but when it is it's usually the "locals" rather than holiday makers or "grockles" as they are fondly known as.

In the picture you can see part of the reason this coast is so well known as the jurrasic coast, the rockbed is pointing up like it does so clearly at Lulworth cove a few miles along the coast due to the "bending" of the rockbed under force millions of years ago.

It cut this cove off nicely.

There are a few hundred steps to walk down to get to this beach, not forgetting going back up them again to get out, a good work out for your legs that is.

"Rufus castle and the church ruins"

I recently posted a picture of Rufus castle sitting above "Ope cove" and it's lovely secluded beach. I mentioned the church ruins between the castle and the beach.

Here is a picture of the church ruins and clearly you can also see Rufus castle sitting high up above.


The huge church walls can clearly be seen here on the left middle, and the gravestones on are on the right side of the picture taking up almost half of the space up here, it was a small thin but long church.

Sturdy though, looking at the size of the walls!

Most of the gravestones are very worn but a few letters and dates can be read so always worth looking. :o)

"Limited time to see, Old Portland railway"

Check it out. :o)

The Portland Railway.

A landmark named after me!

Well not quite, this is known as bobs crane.

My name is certianly not bob... not to my family or friends.. but it IS to the masons, some of them.. thats all that would call me during my apprenticeship.

So it's nice to have a landmark named after me!!

Bob's crane is at the tip of portland, known as portland bill.

This was used years ago to hoist boats out of the water laden with fish. Not a common site these days.. sadly.

This area of portland really comes alive in the summer, with the locals flocking to their beach huts.

But you simply can't beat the sight of the waves crashing in during the rougher weather.