Portland Museum, Dorset – Deposits

Jon Trevelyan(UK)

I visited this little museum some time in the past whereas on a Geologists’ Association subject journey. I’ve handed it a number of time and at all times beloved the big Titanites giganteus above the door (Fig. 1) of this picturesque cottage (Fig. 2). Consequently, I had at all times wished to go to, however extra significantly I wish to see the well-known fossil turtle (Fig. 3) that’s exhibited there.

Actually, Portland Museum is a stunning instance of an area museum containing (amongst different issues, geology (Fig. 4), on this case, tucked away in a good looking a part of the ‘island’ in two seventeenth century cottages, close to Rufus Castle and the favored Church Ope Cove.

The Isle of Portland in Dorset represents essentially the most southerly level of the Jurassic, which is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Web site and well-known for its geology, fossils and geomorphology. It’s joined to the mainland by the equally well-known Chesil Seaside however has at all times been regarded (not least by its inhabitants)as separate from the mainland, and that is mirrored within the museum’s assortment. That’s, Portland Museum doesn’t simply comprise geology and palaeontology; its reveals additionally mirror the Isle’s historical past and folks.

Portland Museum was based in 1930 by Dr Marie Stopes, famend for her contributions to palaeobotany and feminine sexuality (however much less nicely revered for her eugenics). Its website states that its mission is to:

… promote the historical past and heritage of the Isle of Portland by making accessible the gathering of objects, archives and pictures that inform the story of the island from its earliest instances to the current day.”

It’s an impartial registered Charitable Belief run largely by volunteers.

When it comes to geology, Portland Museum shows a superb assortment of Jurassic fossils, together with a Megalosaurus footprint artificially embedded in a rock on the high of the backyard (the place you’ll be able to drink your espresso). It additionally has a group of cycads (Fig. 5) that initially introduced Stopes to the island. Nevertheless, as I recommend above, my favorite exhibit is the Portland turtle fossil. This extraordinarily uncommon fossil is the oldest recognized instance of a turtle fossil discovered, definitely in Europe, however probably the remainder of the world.

As well as, each contained in the museum and outdoors, there are the evitable huge ammonites (the Titanites giganteus referred to above; Fig. 6) that the Isle is known for, but additionally the stays of reptiles that swam within the tropical, Jurassic Tethys seas. Each the cycads and lots of the ammonites had been found over time by working quarrymen within the layers of Portland Stone, used to assemble among the most iconic buildings on the earth, as an example, St Paul’s Cathedral within the Metropolis of London.

The museum could be discovered at 217 Wakeham, Easton, Portland, Dorset, DT5 1HS. There’s parking close by.