PORTLAND BILL, DORSET – ROCKS & FOSSILS 1


Pulpit Rock is an artificial stack of rocks at the southern tip of Portland. It was created in the 1870s during quarrying as a relic of the industry. It is climbable and is apparently somewhere that the adventurous like to ‘Tombstone’, an activity beyond my imagining.

PULPIT ROCKPortland Bill, Dorset - Pulpit Rock

The flaggy flat areas near the rock are reminiscent of the ‘Flaggy Shore’ of the Burren, Co. ClarePortland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils 2Portland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils

Rock. And a pretty wheatear. There were also meadow pipits, and lots of gullsĀ Portland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils 3

The rock surfaces all round Pulpit Rock is known as ‘Snail Shore’, embedded with millions of snail, oyster and mollusc shells from what was once the seabed in Jurassic times. Here are a few examples, some surpassingly large.Portland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils 4 Portland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils 5 Portland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils 6 Portland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils 7 Portland Bill, Dorset - Rocks & Fossils 8

An arty shot of Pulpit Rock to end with, taken into the sun with mixed successPortland Bill, Dorset - Pulpit Rock 2