The Verne Citadel

En un regard

Le château en bref

At the highest point of the Isle of Portland, some 145 metres above the sea, the Verne Citadel overlooks Portland Harbour, which it was designed to protect. This immense Victorian stronghold, enclosing nearly 23 hectares, was the centrepiece of the defensive system set up around the new naval harbour and its monumental breakwaters. The works, directed from 1857 to the plans of Captain Crossman of the Royal Engineers, lasted until 1881. They employed convicts from the nearby Grove prison alongside contractors. To the north and east, steep slopes were enough for defence; to the south and west, a ditch cut into the rock, some twenty metres deep, supplied the stone for the harbour breakwaters. Open batteries crowned the ramparts. The citadel then became an infantry barracks, and later the headquarters of the coastal artillery during both world wars. Since 1949 it has housed a prison: HMP The Verne, briefly converted into an immigration removal centre between 2014 and 2017. Its south entrance, dated 1881, and its casemates are listed Grade II*. The site, still a prison, cannot be visited, but its ramparts remain impressive from the surrounding heights.