Off grid camping with a view | Isle of Portland, dorset
Isle of Portland | Portland Bill
Do you ever go on property search websites and just sctroll through houses in random locations that you like? I do that pretty much after every trip. I always loved Dorset and it’s dramatic coastline, the Jurassic Coast, beautiful villages, fairly sunny weather, but man! House prices are through the roof! One day I decided to look for the cheapest place in Dorset and this is how I came across the Isle of Portland. I’ve never heard about it and I didn’t know anyone who visited Portland. When I saw prices of properties in this area, I couldn’t believe it was so cheap! It was pretty much comparable to Bedfordshire prices for a standard 3bedroom house. What was different about the Isle of Portland? I really wanted to know why is it so cheap? After a quick look at few properties I realized that there are a lot of small terraced houses don’t really look very appealing. Yes it’s by the sea with beautiful views but there isn’t really much that you can do there work wise and it’s not a typical seaside village full of character, don’t get me wrong it has a character but it’s not what you expect. I still liked the quirkiness of this place even just looking at the right move and google photos.
So Portland quickly jumped on my bucket list of places that I wanted to visit. I had to see it with my own eyes. I had a feeling this place will be weird, but I like weird! To get to the Island, which technically is not an island you have to go via barrier beach called Chesil Beach that joins it to the mainland. The A354 road passes down the Portland end of the beach and then over the Fleet Lagoon by bridge to the mainland.
It’s not full of tourist attractions although it has some amazing places that you can visit, one of them is the quarry at the top of the hill with views of Chesil beach, the other one is Portland Bill with a very photogenic Lighthouse and gorgeous cliffs there is also the Portland Caslte which we didn’t visit on that occasion. I think the fact that it’s different and it’s not a typical tourist-y location, that’s what made me fall in love with this place. There is also a prison there, an actual active prison!
The Isle of Portland is a tide island 6 km long by 2.7 km wide. Portland is a central part of the Jurassic Coast, a world heritage site on the Dorset in East Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms. Portland Harbour is located in between Portland and Weymouth, it’s one of the largest man-made harbours in the world.
Parking:
New Ground, Portland DT5 1LQ
I belong to one of those campervan groups on Facebook where members share cool locations where they are staying often off grid. So when I saw a post about Portland I became interested even more. Turns out there is a parking on the top of the hill by the quarry, where you can pay for a day or for overnight stay and it’s only £10 for the night (or £3 per day). It’s not a big car park, it’s very secluded and it has amazing views of Chesil Beach so we decided to head straight there. Upon arrival we were greeted by this really friendly parking attendant who took our payment, we had a nice little chat about the island and things worth seeing. The parking wasn’t busy at all. Bear in mind this is not a campsite, this is a parking ground and it doesn’t have any facilities, although there is a public toilet block not very far, probably about three minutes walk from the parking and it’s open 24/7. So after parking our van and having a quick lunch with decided to go for a walk. We walked by the prison which I didn’t realize at the time was an active prison. We made our way down to the beach via a little town where you can find some local shops, pubs and restaurants and a chippy so it has everything that might need. There were also some supermarkets on the entrance to the island. It was a nice and pleasant walk down the hill, it wasn’t so nice on the way back though esp with our toddler on our backs (as always), we did have to break some sweat but we made it up the hill and we were back in our van ready for the night. View of the sunset was just a 10 out of 10. It was a very windy weekend and we could feel the wind blowing directly into the side of our van, but it wasn’t the worst experience, and we were so tired that the soothing sound of the wind helped us to fall asleep even quicker (it might have to do with some of the red wine we had before going to sleep) .
The next morning after breakfast (half english - beans, eggs and bacon) we decided to walk around the quarry a little bit and then we made our way to Portland Bill. We stayed there for half a day, walked around and enjoyed the weather. We even saw a seal in the sea, that was a bonus :) There was also a group of local kids who were jumping off the cliffs straight into called water, which I found quite scary, but after having a chat with one of the mums I learnt that one of the local teachers from secondary school organises these trips every Sunday and everyone can join in. he teaches them cliff jumping and supervises the whole experience. He clearly knows what he’s doing and everybody seemed very professional about it, so it was a proper cliff jumping experience that made me go WOW!
So do I still consider living on the Isle of Portland? Yes, for sure! I’m not 100% about the weather, because bearing in mind its location, the island is always in constant battle with the sea and the wind. But I like the idea of being close to the sea or any kind of water to be honest. I like that there is so much you can do on a nice day. We are big fans of kayaking and paddle boarding, I’d definitely consider buying a boat If I’ve lived there. So in that sense. Yes. House prices are very convincing. Although I’d prefer a property on outskirts of town. So there is always a possibility.
Part two coming soon.
And here are more photos from our little adventure :)
