Portland Castle

Portland Castle was built by Henry VIII as part of his coastal defences against the French and Spanish (Device Forts). It has survived almost intact since the 16th century.

The low-profile fortress, built of white Portland stone, overlooks Portland and Weymouth Harbour.

Portland castle saw military action during the English Civil War when it was taken and retaken by Royalist and Parliamentary supporters.

In Victorian times, the castle was a private residence for Captain Charles Manning, builder of the Portland Breakwater, but the government reclaimed ownership of the castle in 1870.

The castle was used as a Seaplane base in WWI and as part of the D-Day operations in WWII.

Portland Castle is situated within the Royal Naval Dockyard at Portland.

The castle is a really good place to visit with a family and offers a number of exciting visitor attractions: You can try on armour, explore the Tudor kitchen and gun platform and see ghostly sculpted figures from the past.

An excellent audio tour is included in the admission charge.

Henry VIII's Device Forts

When Henry VIII's divorce of Catherine of Aragon left England politically isolated, a treaty between France and Spain in 1538 aroused fears of invasion. Although the threat was short-lived, it simulated the largest defence programme since Saxon times.

Henry took a personal interest in the military engineering techniques of the time, and approved and ammended the designs himself.

Some 30 works were started in 1539, but the key ones are the 10 device forts at Camber, Walmer, Deal Castle, and Sandgate in the South East, Hurst, Calshot, Sandown Blockhouse, around the Solent, and Portland, Pendennis, and St Mawes in the South West.

All survive except Sandown, generally in the form of a central round tower surrounded by a variety of concentric elements. Short and squat, with normally 3 tiers of long-distance offensive armament and a couple of tiers of defensive armament.

The bays had wide splays for easy traverse of the guns, walls were thick and curved to deflect shot, and the medieval portcullises, murderholes and drawbridges were perpetuated.