Welcome to Weymouth

Greetings from Weymouth.

After departing Cardiff in Wales, we traveled to England’s south coast to visit the seaside town of Weymouth in Dorset.  

Weymouth is known for a few things, including Summer fun on its beach.  Nearby is Portland, home to a Royal Navy base and quarries.   Also nearby is Chesil Beach, more about that shortly   

Weymouth went from being a sleepy seaside town to a much sought after destination about 200 years ago, when the doctors of King George III advised him to go to the sea for his poor health.  So, he visited his brother the Duke of Gloucester and, before you know it, everybody had to visit Weymouth.  In fact, new accommodations had to be built.  We are staying in one of the former royal apartments, a beachfront house on Gloucester Row.  After the Victorian era, working class Londoners thronged Weymouth.  Today, Weymouth is a vibrant beachside escape in the Summer.   

Here are a few scenes from Weymouth:  a statue of King George III, a replica of a bathing cart and the Jubilee clock   

The beach at Weymouth is long and wide and remains shallow and flat, even far from shore.  The king’s bathing cart (like the replica below) was drawn by horses away from the beach and he descended into the water, away from prying eyes.  Later, bathing carts were used by fashionable ladies. 

Above, some random hottie stands in the doorway of her fashionable hotel. 

Near Weymouth is the Isle of Portland, a large island with villages, quarries, a fort built by Henry VIII and a large naval base.  The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth calls Portland home and was steaming in the bay during our visit.  Portland is a huge rock rising high out of the sea, hence the quarries.  All of the homes and other buildings are made from local stone, which is necessary so they can withstand the high winds of Portland. 

We enjoyed a bus tour of Portland to see some of its sights.  What made the bus ride thrilling was our driver, who was in training.  So, driving around twisting, hilly roads near steep drops was an experience we didn’t expect.  Obviously, we survived.  We ended our island tour at the national sailing center where we saw some Olympic sailors prepping their boat.  

After Portland, our next stop was Chesil Beach and Fleet Lagoon.  

What makes Chesil Beach so unique is its composition.  The beach is directly on the English Channel and consists of a high, wide dune that leads down to the water. The dune is not a sand dune.  Instead, the dune consists of millions and millions of medium-sized round pebbles that have been polished smooth by natural forces.  The beach is lovely and stretches for nearly 20 miles.  

On the landward side of Chesil Beach is a narrow strip of water that runs between the beach and the cliffs.  Known as the Fleet Lagoon (“fleet” means shallow), the body of water is home to abundant sea birds and other wildlife. 

The views from Weymouth are lovely.  Below, the photo shows Weymouth Bay and distant white chalk cliffs along the coast.  

Thanks for visiting Weymouth with us.  

P.S.  At a marina in Weymouth, Greg spotted the sign below.  A slippery slipway?  Who knew.