Church Ope Cove — Attraction in Portland

Atmospheric pebbled small cove surrounded by cliffs and steep inclines. Access by paths and steps are steep and long....one taking you past the old ruined and abandoned church and 'pirates' graveyard the other past Rufus Castle. The cove itself is peppered with beach huts...basically sheds in various states of keep. The beach is almost entirely pebbled with only very small areas of sand near the sea. The sea itself appears clean and clear... the beach shelving to depth rapidly from the shore. A surprising bonus is that there are relatively clean simplistic public toilets sited in the cove. All in all..worth a visit..but if sunny and in summer holidays....don't expect it to be deserted. Fair few people there when I visited (August 23) as one of the few places resembling a beach where you can get a swim on Portland (excluding Chesil, that is). Wasn't packed by any means but relative smallness of cove and its enclosed nature exaggerated sense of 'crowding'. To be fair ..most were heading off by 4pm...but then so was the sun...over the cliffs...

I will share something with you, don't tell anyone about this little gem on Portland. A wonderful little Cove with lovely water and very stoney beach. Probably not great for children as it's difficult to walk on, there are some quite large boulders on the beach. No sound just beach and water. Takes a reasonable walk to get down to the beach from the small car park so allow probably 10 to 15 minutes to get there. No sand, so no buckets required. The lovely walk past the Castle down a winding path which is quite steep in some parts so detinately not suitable for wheelchairs of the infirm! Down past the Old Church and further on to the beach. This is a little gem in my opinion so as I said, please don't pass this on. Note there is no lifeguard on duty here and I believe the currents can be quite strong so if any children enter the water they must be supervised and would recommend that swimmers are quite competent. The water deepings quite quickly so is not good for...

Lovely place, been coming here since I was a kid, DO NOT SWIM IN THE SEA HERE!! not ideal for very young children as the beach is full of big stones, the ancient ruin of a church above the beach is really a beautiful sanctuary, the kids never tire of seeing the pirates graves here (after investigation we found out that the skull and crossbones on the gravestones are not related to pirates but more likely just traditional for locals at the time) also Rufus castle is a huge ruined castle built by William the conquerors nephew (you can get underneath the castle to what was the castles water storage, it is off to the side of the ancient steps leading up to the ruined church, please take care if you find it!! The history in this one little cove on Portland is astounding, there are many more hidden secrets to this place but I won't spoil it for you Have fun, enjoy yourselves and please take your rubbish...