The Morven Guest House stands 150 yards from the sea
near Weymouth's graceful Geogian Esplanade which leads to the picturesque
Old Harbour where fishing boats,visiting tall ships, Condor Channel
Island catamarans and the RNLI Lifeboat moor. The Town Bridge lifts
on even daylight hours to allow luxury yachts and dive boats through
from the Inner Harbour, one of the busiest marinas on the South Coast.
A boat trip from the Old Harbour to Portland's
well preserved Tudor Castle is the ideal way to view Henry the Eighth's
ruined Sandsfoot Castle and the abandoned Chequered Fort which guarded
the breakwaters to the Royal Navy Base in Portland Harbour. Portland now a
major watersports centre and home to the National Sailing Academy
is the chosen site to host the 2012 Olympic sailing events now
the Olympic Games have been awarded to London.
Portland's numerous quarries provided stone
both for London's grandest buildings and for the headstones of Commonwealth
War Graves. St. George's Church at Reforne with memorials to islanders
such as Mary Way "shot by a press gang on the 27th of April
1803" and William Pearce "who was killed by lightning
while on duty in Her Majesty's Service on Portland Beach Nov 29
1858" is a fascinating site to explore with elaborate Georgian
and Victorian headstones carved by Portland stonemasons for deceased
relatives. At the far end of the island are three
lighthouses: the redundant Old Lower Lighthouse which is the Portland
Bird Observatory; the redundant Old Higher Lighthouse which was
birth control pioneer Marie Stope's home; and the now fully automated
Portland Bill Lighthouse which is often open to the public during
daylight hours. But instead why not visit the Bill after dark to
see the lighthouse's beam actually shining twenty five miles out
into the Channel or to look for glow worms? The lights of Weymouth
are especially beautiful at night when viewed from the Verne Citadel.
The 10 mile long Chesil Beach links Portland
to the mainland at Abbotsbury, an extremely picturesque village
famed for its 600 hundred year old swannery, tithe barn and sub-tropical
gardens. Other scenic Estate villages close to Weymouth are Briantspuddle
built after the Great War by the Debenham family, Little Bredy,
Farnham, and Milton Abbas. To see a modern version of a Model village
visit expanding Poundbury on the outskirts of Dorchester where the
Prince of Wales indulges his architectural taste on what used to
be farmland under the gaze of Maiden Castle, North West Europe's
largest hill fort.
