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Quaint, peculiar, funny: the United Kingdom… our "Wahlheimat".

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Thinking of our next destination: Italy and Portugal come to mind, or maybe the time has finally come for a US road trip…

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The Portland Peninsula and Chesil Beach

(vero;2024-Aug-06)

We based ourselves a few times in Donkey Down, a pop-up camp site which has great views over Weymouth and its bay; they have expanded since our last visit, adding a "posher" site (Culliford Tree) to their offering but I'm sure we'll stick to the old Donkey Down in the future. The place is perfect to explore the Portland Peninsula, Chesil Beach and Weymouth. We even walked to Lulworth and Durdle Door from there.

The photos of Portland have been taken during a walk around the peninsula, starting with the western side, down to Portland Bill and up again along its eastern side.

Evening view over Portland from our campsite.

Cliffs on the western side of Portland Peninsula. Portland is known for its famous limestone Portland stone which has been used in many buildings around the country, most notably St Paul Cathedral and the Cenotaph in London. As such, the peninsula is home to old quarries and one of them on top of the plateau of the western side (Tout Quarry) has been transformed into an enjoyable sculpture park: it is quite fun to wander around the place on the look-out for all kind of sculptures, some quite obvious, others less.

View southwards on the way to Portland Bill, the southernmost point of Portland.

Looking back on the western cliffs with Chesil Beach visible in the background.

A jumble of old quarried stone blocks at Portland Bill.

Eastern side of Portland with an old wooden crane.

The eastern cliffs with the white cliffs of Lulworth in the background.

The vegetation on Portland is different to the one otherwise seen in England: small shrubberies, drier species which reminded us in some places of Southern France and made our hike quite special.

Church Ope Cove and the ruins of Rufus Castle on the top left.

View on the town of Portland and the isthmus linking the peninsula to the mainland with Chesil Beach on the left and Weymouth Bay on the right.

Chesil Cove, at the southern end of Chesil Beach, looking back on Portland and the western cliffs. The beach is incredible, 18 miles (28.8 km) long and home to around 180 billion pebbles.

Chesil Beach means pebbles, a lot of pebbles. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and collecting pebbles is forbidden.

Looking west down Chesil Beach by Abbotsbury.

Looking east down Chesil Beach by Abbotsbury with the Portland Peninsula in the background.

Row of houses lining the sea front promenade in Weymouth.

Go back to Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door and beyond, go on to Panoramas of the Jurassic Coast or go up to Dorset or South West England