Sandsfoot Castle (ruins)

This is slowly falling into the sea, 60 years ago you could walk all around this, is now fenced off.would be a shame to lose it, completely.

under the arch there is an image, this looks like the devil and is called Old Nick.

Sandsfoot Castle is now located within the 19th century breakwater of Portland harbour, but dates back to 1539 . It had two principal purposes; to protect English shipping sheltering off Weymouth and Portland from foreign raiders, and to prevent an invading landing force from forming up offshore. Some of the stone possibly came from Bindon Abbey, near Wool, following Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries earlier in the year.

The castle was rectangular with two storeys and dungeons. It was orientated on a north-west/south-east axis and provided a heavy gun emplacement, quarters for its garrison and underground magazines and was surrounded by a ditch and a series of ramparts. The garrison in 1588 consisted of 50 men.

The fortifications were surveyed in 1576, were last improved in 1623 and formally abandoned in 1665, although retained as a store until at least 1691.

The royal coat of arms was saved and can be seen above the south entrance door at All Saints Church in nearby Wyke Regis. Being Tudor, the lion rampant is joined at the shield by a wyvern rather that the unicorn.

Designed specifically as a coastal defence, Sandsfoot Castle was always vulnerable to attach from a landward direction, and often changed hands during the Civil War. The castle dungeons were used as a mint during the Civil War, giving it a greater importance to both defenders and attackers.

http://www.weymouth-dorset.co.uk/sandsfoot.html