Members trip to Albion Stone Quarry, Portland

On Thursday 11^th August 2022, Jurassic Coast Trust Members had the opportunity to visit a working Portland Stone Quarry Mine – Albion Stone. The Isle of Portland in Dorset is famous for its stone quarrying. Portland stone has been used to build iconic structures like St Paul’s Cathedral, the British Museum and the United Nations HQ in New York.

A welcome cool retreat during a heatwave, the rare glimpse into the stone mine was given by Mark Godden from Albion Stone, who was able to offer extensive geological knowledge about the area and what we could see within the mine. For example, how the enormous tectonic forces that created the Alps mountain range, and that is evident in places such as the Lulworth Crumple, also created large seams within the Stone underground in the mine.

Here’s what our Members had to say about their visit:

“It was absolutely fascinating, it brought things up that you would never even think about, what goes on beneath your feet”

“Mark was very knowledgeable and I learnt a lot, every day is a school day”

 “Great! It was really inspirational!”

 “A unique opportunity”

 “I live in a Portland stone house and its great to understand all the effort that goes into extracting it over the years and the modern techniques versus what they used to do.”

If you would like to have the opportunity to take similar trips, why not become a member of the Jurassic Coast Trust – Become a Member today