Portland Bill to Ferry Bridge

Walked by Sally and Richard, Tuesday 30th April 2013.

About 7.5 miles, all on South West Coast Path. Just over 4 hours, including lunch stop.

Click here for all our photos from this walk.

I didn't sleep well, but it was lovely to be able to look out of our room during the night and to watch the beam of the Portland Bill Lighthouse. Kathy Smith has a collection of Lilliput Lane type lighthouses and various other lighthouse memorabilia, which we admired whilst eating a pleasant breakfast. Graham was out taxi driving (doing the 'school run') so we didn't meet him at all.

We left Fairview Cottage about 9.15 and walked back down to Portland Bill Lighthouse where we spotted for the first time a sign indicating that we only had 49 miles to go to the end of the South West Coast Path. Wow, we are nearly there - this made me want to keep going rather than going home today. Ah well, clean clothes would be useful...

We headed off round the eastern coast of the Isle of Portland, initially weaving our way between a veritable town of beach huts, with views back to the three lighthouses, then meandering through disused quarries, with a number of small lifting cranes still in place on the shore.

Eventually we descended to Church Ope Cove, with more beach huts and the ruin of Rufus Castle (also known as 'Bow and Arrow Castle') built into the cliff high above us. We climbed up from the cove but not (as shown on the map) to the top of the cliff - this was the first section of several today where the South West Coast Path has been re-routed, and here the new route was an attractive level section on what looks like a former railway line, presumably to and from the quarries. We had good views ahead of us to the white cliffs of Swyre Head (where we will be walking in around a month) and, after rounding the eastern-most corner of the Isle of Portland, to the breakwaters of Portland Harbour.

We soon left our comfortable level walk and climbed steeply to the Young Offenders Institution (HMP Portland), then walked around its perimeter. We turned inland across scrubland with a working quarry then High Angle Battery to our left and Fancy's Community Farm to our right. We reached a viewpoint, close to HMP The Verne, with some confusion as to the 'correct' route. According to our map, the South West Coast Path turns left here, but we followed our instinct and followed the (un-named) 'Coast Path' around the perimeter of the prison, towards Castletown. We were soon rewarded by new SWCP markers, so our instinct had been right!

We descended steeply down the Merchant's Incline, and soon we were at the entrance to Osprey Quay. We had intended to catch the bus from Fortuneswell, but from here it seemed just as easy to walk on to Ferry Bridge, so we continued around the Quay, past Portland Castle and then into an area clearly much improved for the Olympics. The Coastguard Helicopter was just taking off and there were dinghy sailing lessons in progress. We retraced our yesterday's steps along the causeway to the Chesil Beach Information Centre where we had a delicious lunch of white onion and apple soup at taste* Cafe, then we walked across Ferry Bridge to 'The Ferry Bridge' (pub) and our bus stop.

The Number 1 Bus took us to Weymouth Station where we caught the 14.03 train to London Waterloo. There appear to be different routes from Weymouth to Waterloo and by chance we caught a train that went via Brockenhurst, giving us the opportunity to 'case the joint' for our next walk on the South West Coast Path, when we are hoping to leave a car at my sister's house in the New Forest, and travel on by public transport. Also by chance, some men sitting opposite us were carrying samples of 'Portland Stone Jordans Whitbed' - and investigation revealed that Jordans Whitbed is a type of Portland Stone, mined at the 'Jordans Mine' in the middle of the Island. A very fine name!