Thanks to the time of the year that we visited the grass was very green and we were afforded lovely skyscapes of blue and white, all of which made for some attractive landscape photography in the area.

Of course, no visit to a Roman fortification would be a visit without an image of a phallus. Those Romans sure did like their phalluses.

Housesteads Roman Fort was built in around 124 just after the start of the construction of the nearby Hadrian’s Wall fortifications. The garrison housed a large auxiliary infantry cohort and a detachment of legionaries from Augustus’ Second Legion; in total around 800 men. It is the most complete Roman fort in Britain.

As mentioned above a big reason for visiting the Roman fort at Housesteads was because we’d read that there was an area of Hadrian’s Wall next to it that you could actually walk on. Now, of course, there aren’t guards along the wall’s length so there’s nothing to stop people from just walking on it anyway but it’s a monument of significant historical interest that often needs repairs to maintain it so you shouldn’t. Especially if there are signs up asking people not to walk on the wall any further. Especially if you’re old enough to know better. What I’m trying to say here is that we walked on the part of Hadrian’s Wall you’re allowed to walk on and we took photos of the wall and photos of the land to the north the Romans were protecting England from. Other people – older people, keen walkers from the looks of it – carried on walking on parts they’re not supposed to. Because they’re self-entitled arses.

Some of the maps and imagery as they related to nuclear fallout in the event of the cold war heating up were quite unnerving. I’m not entirely sure how effective a base the bunker would have been; its size didn’t seem to suggest it could be used for long periods. Nevertheless, the old military equipment and cold war feel from the place were excellent.

Our walk took us past Spianáda park and along the wide Kapodistriou Street with a couple of stops along the way to point out buildings of note and remark on the history of the town. The clear, blue sky and cleanliness of the town gave everything a really nice feel.

The entrance to the bazaar of Corfu town was where we parted ways with our guide. Looking down the bustling alley lined with shops and stalls a very noticeable construction was the church of Saint Spyridon.

But we didn’t just get to see the church. Our timing was impeccable (your view may differ after watching the video (removed for now)) in order to hear the bells ringing. And ringing. And ringing. I don’t know that I’d like to work near Saint Spyridon’s church in Corfu, to be perfectly honest.

From here we were on our own and with a couple of stops to hunt down some souvenirs my wife and I went for a wander down alleys and roads at random in a roughly circular route that would eventually bring us back out to where we would need to pick up the coach once more.

I’m very fond of narrow lanes and tall buildings so Corfu Town didn’t disappoint in this respect. I find it fascinating to be among a throng of tourists in an obvious tourist destination as well as close to simple signs of everyday life going on such as washing hanging out on lines over the streets or clothese on the backs of chairs on balconies.

Our meeting point was pretty close to the Old Fortress which had been offered as one of the excursion options. Were we to return to Corfu we would certainly check it out although our general view of the island and town that we saw was that there wasn’t a massive amount to see and do there. We could be completely wrong and if we were hitting the area again we’d definitely research the place a bit more for places of interest. Corfu was pleasant enough but it didn’t fill us with that “must go back sometime!” factor we look for.

After a short stay in the shade by the coaches as we waited for some latecomers to arrive (surprise!) where we saw people – tourists, I think – pouring water into the palms of their hands for local, stray-looking dogs to get some respite from the heat (which was nice) we were dropped off back at the port entrance where we had the choice of taking a shuttle bus back to the ship or walking the rest of the way. We chose the latter in order to snap a few last shots on Corfu soil. There were three other ships in port alongside us: a Costa, a TUI, and Cunard’s Queen Victoria that we’d previously seen in Montenegro.

A few final shots of Corfu from our balcony as the Royal Princess departed completed our first Greek stop on our Mediterranean cruise.

We took our time heading back and stopped frequently so that she could take some weight off the hairline fracture and while I took some opportunities to snap a few photos I was understandably more concerned for my wife’s comfort than simply grabbing pictures, especially as I’d not been shy about snapping away on the walk coming the other way.

As we approached Clarence Battery the ground levelled off and the pain diminished so I got the nod that it was okay for me to spend a few minutes nosing around the 18th century defensive position.

Clarence Battery formed part of the outer defences of Fort George, itself a fortification designed to protect St Peter Port. The fort was commissioned in 1779 and the gun battery we were visiting was built in 1787. At the time the battery was known as Terres Point but it was renamed Clarence Battery in 1815 in honour of George III’s son when all the fortifications were completed. Four gun mounts aiming southwards and one at the very end protected against sea-based approaches while another five gun mounts were aimed more northerly in order to coordinate crossfire with Castle Cornet against more direct approaches to the capital city.

The battery was in very good condition with most of the various mountings, rails, and pivots for the guns pretty much as they were a couple of hundred years ago. During the German occupation of Guernsey in World War II some minor modifications were made to Clarence Battery and it served as part of the Luftwaffe’s early warning system.

Clarence Battery is free to enter and and only needs a few minutes of your time to look around. The views from the headland were absolutely lovely. It can be found at the top of a set of steps directly above the Guernsey Aquarium which would be our next stop.

Simply by keeping the water on our right side as we walked we hugged the shoreline past the harbour area, attractive under the sun and light haze of the day.

Castle Cornet was built in the first half of the 13th century. Originally, Guernsey was part of the Duchy of Normandy so following on from William I’s successful conquest of England in 1066 it and the other Channel Islands were ruled over by the king of England. That changed in 1202 when the French king declared Normandy forfeit and seized it from King John. Over half a century of battles took place over the disputed region until King Henry III signed the Treaty of Paris in 1259 which gave up the Normandy region except for the Channel Islands. Invasions of Guernsey continued, though, for centuries with the island and the castle (most of the time) changing ownership between the French and English numerous times and having its fortifications steadily improved as the years passed.

The castle was one of the most irregular structures of its sort that we’ve visited. Buildings inside its walls were at different levels, of different designs, and there seemed to be not a lot of thought to its planning, evidence of the way in which it had evolved its defences since first construction. Making our way around, therefore, involved a lot of going over parts of the castle’s interior several times looking for areas we’d missed. Fortunately, Castle Cornet is not too large and this was no major hardship.

Views from the topmost areas of the castle were lovely thanks largely to the lovely weather we had during our day in Guernsey. It was particularly nice to look out and see our cruise ship, Sapphire Princess, and the steady run of tender boats taking people to and from the island.

There were several museums and some small gardens in the castle grounds which were pleasant if not exactly incredible. For the very reasonable entry fee, though, Castle Cornet is definitely worth a visit if you’re in St Peter Port.

Tip: Never actually expect you’re going to get into a French port

The bad element of this particular stop on the cruise was that Princess Cruises were not very good at explaining what was happening here, which was a shame. Their remarks both on the paper and over the ship’s speakers implied to us that our excursion was possibly still viable (especially as it was inland and roughly equidistant from the original and new French ports), only needing a different pick-up point for the coaches. This was not the case as we eventually discovered after wandering into the shore excursions centre on the night before landfall to enquire as to its status: it had been well-and-truly cancelled but look, here are some other trips we can book you on! We declined a booked excursion.

The great element of this particular stop on the cruise was that La Rochelle was utterly gorgeous and everyone who’d been to it and Le Verdon-sur-Mer before agreed it was a much better destination. Indeed, a cynical person might wonder why a cruise line would choose the latter port (nowhere near anything of much interest) over the former (plenty of things for people to do on their own) in the first place. But who’s cynical?

The view from our balcony on Sapphire Princess on the morning of our only French stop of the cruise was towards the small island Île de Ré, connected to the mainland by the Pont de Ré.

Having declined a booked excursion we took advantage of the free shuttle bus service provided by Princess and/or the La Rochelle port authority and ventured into the coastal city (about 15-20 minutes away, I think) for an explore on our own for a change. We were dropped off along the Avenue du Général de Gaulle not far off being opposite the tourist information centre where we were reminded about the last bus back to the ship and left to our own devices. One of the first things you’ll see in this area of La Rochelle is one of those big wheels that seem to have popped up across the world in every major city with something worth looking at from the air.

West of us as we’d got off the coach was an area of parkland and an open square near the city’s aquarium. Our plan was to visit that later (and we would; that’s in a future post) but our attention was drawn to the medieval towers along the walls protecting the Old Harbour (Vieux Port) so we headed roughly north as that’s where everyone else was heading. This took us past an area where a small set of amusement rides were set up, a statue to heroes of the city, and one of two lighthouses in the port area, this one being coloured green for navigation purposes.

We hugged the harbour and its marina area and made our way down the Quai du Carénage towards the nearest of the three tours, the Tour Saint-Nicolas de la Rochelle. The view from this part of La Rochelle was gorgeous, taking in the fairly quiet port area and the medieval fortifications as well as the numerous establishments set up to take advantage of the scenery. Summer evenings in La Rochelle must be fantastic.

As we approached the tower we discovered that a pedestrian swing bridge was currently open to allow a couple of yachts to exit and enter a small quay. Not the most amazing of things to witness but it was the first time I’d seen one in operation so I had to take some video (removed).

Across the swing bridge we found the second of the two lighthouses, this being the red counterpart to the one we’d seen before, as well as a little bit of street art. We didn’t know it at the time but that street art marked the northern boundary of a small area of La Rochelle called Belle du Gabut. We would be spending quite a bit of time in there later in the day (and, again, in a later post).

There were a number of people around the Tour Saint-Nicolas de la Rochelle as we approached but they quite clearly were not venturing inside the tower. We even saw one group approach the door, look at a sign, shrug, then leave. This made us suspect that we couldn’t get in which would have been a shame except this wasn’t true; it’s been a while since I studied any French but my skills were just enough to understand that the tower would open at 10:00 (it was a few minutes before that at this time) and that there were prices for entry to one, two, or three towers, but one of them (not this one) was closed for repairs and prices were reduced a fraction accordingly. I was quite pleased with what I’d read and so we spent the time before the door to the tower opening taking a few more shots of the scenery of the city, remarking to ourselves that a large bank of cloud seemed to be descending rather quickly. Luckily, this would burn off in due course and our views from the towers (next post) were not unduly hampered.

The first of the towers that we ventured into was…

Tour Saint-Nicolas De La Rochelle

Situated on the eastern side of the harbour entrance and the obvious first stop was Tour Saint-Nicolas de la Rochelle, one half of the gateway to the harbour. This tower and the one opposite it were built from the mid to late 1300s. The original plan was to create an arch between the towers as well although this was never realised.

The foundations of this tower were wood, driven into the mud of the water basin, but the tower itself is so heavy that there is a very slight lean to it. It’s still perfectly safe to explore these days, though, and a series of steep, spiralling staircases and narrow corridors curving around the inside of the tower wall and offering entry points into the central, circular section at a number of spots eventually lead up onto the roof where some excellent views of La Rochelle and the surrounding region can be seen. We’d timed our visit to coincide with a bank of low-level cloud so the French city wasn’t quite as pretty as it could have been but as you’ll see from the photos of the next towers we visited that cloud quickly evaporated in the pleasing breeze and rising temperature of the day.

Tour De La Chaine

Getting to the second of the towers required us to retrace our approach hugging the harbour on our left and around the attractive waterfront shops, bars, and restaurants.

The Tour de la Chaine (or Chain Tower) is the western side tower guarding the entrance to La Rochelle’s harbour. This was the tower that controlled access to the port and as you might be able to guess from its name it did this using a chain that could be strung between it and Tour Saint-Nicolas either for defensive purposes or to ensure that tax was duly applied to arriving or departing vessels. In fact, the chain itself was originally controlled from a smaller tower alongside this one although that was removed in order to widen the entrance.

This was the tower that was closed when we visited although, on seeing the door was open, we ventured inside where we were told that we could pass through and onto the small, fortified area closer to the harbour entrance. We did, because we could, and so that I could snap a few photos. If we’re allowed to go somewhere then you can pretty much guarantee we will just to say we have because that’s what travelling’s all about for us.

Tour De La Lanterne

The most visually impressive of the three towers was the Tour de la Lanterne (or Lantern Tower), situated at the western end of the Rue sur les Murs, the same section of defensive wall that housed the Tour de la Chaine. This “road on the walls” featured some attractive architecture among its houses’ designs.

Built in the middle of the 1400s the Tour de la Lanterne is the oldest lighthouse on the Atlantic coast and if that’s not a good enough reason just to visit it then I don’t know what is. My advice if you’re visiting, though, is to hang around and wait for a bit outside if you see a queue or a large group of people entering. The entry doorway is narrow and the actual route into the tower is on your right as you pass in. However, to gain entry you have to head into a small room straight ahead to have your “three towers” ticket approved or buy a single ticket, then head back out and through the door you passed on the way in. This is fine if there are only a few of you. This was chaotic when we turned up as it was a heaving mass of bodies trying to head one way then another then squeezing past. But still very worth it.

In addition to serving as a lighthouse and providing obvious defensive capabilities to the city of La Rochelle the tower was also a prison for a long period. The interior walls are filled with carvings in the stone from former prisoners, some of the more important of which are highlighted or explained in further detail on plaques as you ascend the structure. It’s incredibly fascinating to see some of the writing, the dates, the artwork even of formerly-incarcerated people long dead and it’s shocking just how many people there were held at a time in some of the rooms; it must have been hell in there.

It’s not a true holiday for us unless we’ve climbed to the top of some steep structure panting and sweating and shaking our heads wondering why we put ourselves through such torture. But we know why really, and that’s so we can get great views from wherever we are. Climbing to the top of the Tour de la Lanterne and looking all around La Rochelle was a fabulous experience. The clouds were little more than distant haze at this point and the warmth of colours along with the contrast of the blues of the sky and sea against the greenery of nearby parkland and the red-tiled, white-walled buildings of the city was an absolute joy to behold.

The walkway around the former housing for the lantern that gave the tower its name and lighthouse-functionality is only wide enough for one person at a time and there is no indication as to which direction you should head around it. Expect lots of reversing and trying other directions and repeating that until you finally make the circuit. A minor inconvenience for that wide, beautiful landscape in every direction and so you can say that you reached the highest point on the tower.

If you’re visiting La Rochelle then it’s really worth the effort and very reasonable price to spend an hour or so exploring the three towers protecting its old harbour area. Each tower has its own charm and associated bit of history and each provides unique views of the city that you shouldn’t miss.

Despite not wanting to be out on Portland in inclement weather conditions we don’t generally have a problem with a little rain so we decided we’d give our legs some exercise and take in a little of the South West Coast Path, England’s longest national trail which just so happens to run through the town in which we were staying. South of our hotel and the town harbour it runs around the Nothe Peninsula and alongside Newton’s Cove and Portland Harbour. We spotted a castle marked on the map and set that as our walking destination, expecting plenty of views out to sea and plenty of cruise ships to spot from afar.

From the hotel we headed across the road to the beach and out onto the Weymouth Pier area around the Pavilion, north of the harbour entrance. We’d been able to see seven ships anchored in the bay the night before but one of the P&O vessels was notable by its absence this morning.

To get to the southern side of the harbour entrance involved a short walk along the water’s edge and across the bascule bridge that lifts periodically to allow vessels to pass in and out of the River Wey. The harbour area of Weymouth was very picturesque with buildings dating from around the seventeenth century forming the general backdrop to a variety of fishing and tourist boats. Incidentally, we did look at seeing if any of the boats were taking passengers out to see the cruise ships up close and they were but they were all booked up when we arrived. Plenty of us cruise-loving weirdos around.

The first place we planned to visit was just beyond the harbour area. Weymouth Museum was located in Brewers Quay, a very attractive building and not just because it used to be a brewery. Built near the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, the building has passed through many hands, and since it stopped making beer (boo) has housed shopping areas and dining establishments and an art gallery but nowadays is mostly vacant and will likely end up as fancy housing most people can’t afford because isn’t that what all lovely buildings eventually end up as?

Weymouth Museum was closed. This was something I’d have known if I’d read my phone correctly when I’d spotted it on the map, but we would end up visiting it on the following day which you’ll be able to read about in the next post in this travelogue series.

So… This castle and fort you want to see too… They are actually open, aren’t they?

Taking my wife’s implied “If you make me walk for ages in this weather and these things are closed I will push you from the nearest cliff” to heart I double-checked that the two other places we’d been planning to visit were really open – they were – and headed for the one farthest away first with a route that took us directly to Newton’s Cove.

Newton’s Cove is the sheltered area of water between the Nothe Peninsula and Portland Harbour, the largest man-made harbour in the world when construction was completed in 1872. Our map view hadn’t given us any reason to suspect we wouldn’t be able to walk along the northernmost of the breakwaters – the Bincleaves Groyne – that form the harbour but this wasn’t the case so we had to make do with some cruise ship-spotting from the mainland. The low cloud, blustery wind, and damp conditions in the air didn’t make for the best photography experiences, sadly.

The walking trail climbed at this point towards Bincleaves Green, an open and elevated space with views that would be particularly lovely on sunnier days but were still pleasant enough on this one.

Prominent on the green was a monument to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, MP for Weymouth in the early nineteenth century. Fowell Buxton was a very important though lesser-known figure in abolitionism, taking over from William Wilberforce‘s lead role in that respect in Parliament and bringing to fruition the movement that had arisen to end the slave trade initially, then free the slaves. For this reason he has memorials, plaques, busts, and monuments in numerous locations around the UK, and on the five pound note featuring Elizabeth Fry, thanks to his friendship with her and his work on prison reform too, he is the leftmost man wearing glasses in the depiction of Fry reading to Newgate prisoners. I suspect that the best that the current crop of self-serving politicians in Parliament can hope for from the future will be decent likenesses among the effigies constructed and burnt during their monthly name-cursing ceremonies.

The South West Coast Path conjured up in its name a path by the coast and, while we could see that it transformed into roads for the next stretch of walking, these too, with their names Redcliff View and Belle Vue Road, led us to believe that following this national trail would be one of attractive sea vistas en route to the castle that was our destination. Well, I think you can probably guess what I’m leading up to here. It’s entirely likely that houses along the coastal side of those roads do indeed have stunning seascapes onto which their owners can gaze but for someone traipsing along the street there is but a single glimpse of water to be had in a metre-wide gap down the side of one building. We entertained ourselves along this part of the walk by coming up with new names for it, such as The South West Nothing But Houses Trail and The Brick-Lined Route Of The Imagination and, our favourite, It’s A Road.

We eventually came upon the first of the two historical Weymouth sites we planned to visit this day and initial views of the garden area in front of Sandsfoot Castle were very pleasantly surprising indeed; the explosion of colour in the flowers and the tropical feel of the palm trees on such a grey day seemed wonderfully out of place and character for the walk thus far. These gardens were originally planted in 1951 following closure of the castle to the public on safety grounds in the wake of the collapse of what had been the fortification’s gun platform.

As you can tell from the photos below, Sandsfoot Castle is not large. It is a sixteenth-century blockhouse, a single building built for defensive purposes during the reign of Henry VIII, and was in use until after the Civil War. Local people then started to remove parts of the structure for building work in the area and Sandsfoot Castle became a ruin then, thanks to the easily-eroded clay cliffs on which it was constructed, a danger to the public. The twenty-first century saw repairs made to the foundations and the addition of a raised walkway on which to view the castle in a safe manner and that is what you can see today.

We weren’t the only people braving the fine drizzle of the day to read the information boards and take a look inside a piece of history on the Dorset coast this morning, and special mention must be made of the woman in the centre of the photo below who walked in, walked straight to the viewing spot and location of an information board you can see, and proceeded to stand there and look out to sea with a coffee in her hand for close to ten minutes while the rest of us waited patiently for her to move on. Us all being sensible people who sensibly were maintaining social distancing, along with us all being British people and unfailingly reserved, nobody deigned to get close to her and shout something like “Oi! A little consideration for the rest of the visitors getting rained on out here!?” Obviously we wanted to do that but the law of the land dictates we must tut and shake our heads at one another instead and that’s precisely what we did.

As we left Sandsfoot Castle we spotted a sign for the Rodwell Trail which sounded more enticing than retracing our steps back towards town on the inappropriately-named South West Coast Path. The Rodwell Trail was very pleasant, mostly flat, and shielded from the worst of the elements by trees and bushes, and follows along the route of what was a railway line in the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. Indeed, you can see remnants of the old railway line as you walk along, something that shows how quickly nature can restore the impacts of humans if allowed to do so. This trail is also purportedly home to a variety of wildlife with boards positioned along its length indicating the nearby presence of bats or butterflies or lizards; we never saw any, though.

To Nothe Fort, then. With the increasingly more important naval use of nearby Portland Harbour in the latter half of the nineteenth century it was considered necessary to build defences and Nothe Fort was the result. Despite this, it never really saw any action with the only real excitement being the firing of its rampart guns as a warning to unidentified vessels approaching during World War II that subsequently turned out to be refugees. In the 1950s Nothe Fort was effectively abandoned, sold to the council, went through a period of neglect, almost got turned into a hotel, housed civil administration nuclear shelter facilities, but eventually underwent a bit of restoration and transformation into the museum it is today.

Entering Nothe Fort puts you in the centre of a D-shaped space with the curved ramparts facing out to sea and sporting a few guns. Disabled access was very good at the fort with ramped areas and elevators. Wide-ranging views can be had and if it hadn’t been quite so exposed to freezing gusts we might have spent more time enjoying them. Of course we gazed out at the cruise ships again but we are a smidge obsessed in that respect. Not as bad as some people I could mention, mind.

The main space of the ground level of the fort felt underused to us with just a few items of interest such as an air raid shelter. Beneath the ramparts there were some rooms with displays but at this point exploring the fort we felt it was okay but nothing special.

However, there is a lower level to the fort running under the walls of it with rooms to either side and this was far more interesting. It was also far less cold and that was a real bonus on this visit. Models, maps, photos, and information posters filled many of the rooms and it would be easy to spend hours exploring this part of Nothe Fort if military history and the history of Weymouth were things that fascinated you. I personally loved the Cold War civil defence room reconstructions because the sight of a BBC computer and 5.25 inch floppy disks makes my nerd neurons fire.

Nothe Fort is certainly worth a visit if you’re passing through or staying in Weymouth but, of course, the really important question is: How do you pronounce Nothe?

Here we are then at… Nothee?.. Fort.

Is that the pronunciation you’re going with?

What do you think? Not He?

That doesn’t make any sense. “This fort: what’s his name?” “Ooh, fort not a man. Not he.”

It’s like the word “another” with missing start and end letters. ‘Nuther. “What’s this fort’s name? Don’t ask me, mate. It’s just ‘nuther fort as far I’m concerned.”

Knowth. As in “Oh yes, I knowth this fort very well. Difficult to pronounce, it is.”

Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that one of those pronunciations is in fact correct.

Sandsfoot Castle, Nothe Fort, Rodwell Trail, and a short trek along the least interesting part of the South West Coast Path (I hope) satisfied our urge to explore some of Weymouth so the remainder of the day would be more relaxed. And yes, that is a euphemism for “mostly spent in the pub”. We started off by heading back towards the picturesque harbour area in order to cross back over the bridge to the main part of town.

First of the Weymouth pubs was the Rendezvous & Royal Oak on the harbour’s edge and with a lovely view of the bascule bridge that we got to see raise and lower while we had a drink. Drinks were ordered via an app and social distancing was observed well. Incidentally, the drinks you see below aren’t ours. They were delivered to our table, we thanked the member of staff, we poured the cider out, I took the photo, and then we realised we hadn’t ordered them. A small mix-up as a nearby table had ordered similar drinks to us. Seemed like a pretty nice pub and the staff were very friendly but we only stayed for one.

The two other pubs we discovered were so good – and very different from one another – that we would hit both of them on the following day in Weymouth too. First up, and only because my wife spotted a sandwich board in the high street indicating it was one street over, was the Doghouse Micropub. We adore micropubs and this one was lovely; one long room with seating at one end and a bar the other, plus the all-important wide range of craft ales and ciders to taste-test. As the name suggests and as one of the photos below confirms this is also a dog-friendly pub, and we saw several people turn up for drinks with their four-legged friends in attendance. We were also very impressed with the toiletries in the pub loo which included deodorant and feminine hygiene products to use freely. Definitely hit this place up if you like craft ales, dogs, or craft ales and dogs.

Because we fancied something a little more substantial than pub snacks to eat we then went in search of somewhere that would do some food along with more drinks. We knew that this wouldn’t be easy with a lot of places requiring advance bookings because of The Times In Which We Live (in fact, we made sure to book a table for a meal for the following night because of this) but we took a chance on the Nautico Lounge when we saw its website saying people could just turn up and be seated. This turned out to be a great discovery. A QR code on the table allowed for easy access to a website to order food and drink (no app download required) and panels were positioned between the well-spaced-out tables to enforce distancing. The pub itself was very attractive with a great range of food and drink on offer. We do like a cocktail (it’s a side-effect of all those cruises coupled with borderline alcoholism) and we were very happy with the available choices.

In the next post in this West Country travelogue series I’ll cover our final day in Weymouth which will see a return to some pubs, an evening meal in a restaurant on the beach, and, ahead of all that, visits to the town museum, the aquarium, plus a look at a whole lot of sand sculptures.

The use of Portsmouth as a naval port, however, has also necessitated man-made defences to further protect the city in the past, and in the latter half of the nineteenth century the Palmerston Forts were constructed. The forts were never used as intended as the threat from France dissipated soon after the ring of defensive fortifications was completed but anti-aircraft emplacements were added during World War II and some of the forts were given over to secure bunkers during the Cold War. The eastmost of the forts, Fort Purbrook, is often used as a location for craft fairs these days and it was to one of these that we went in October 2006 during which the following photos were taken looking in all directions from the brick walls.