Durdle Pier is a disused 17th-century stone shipping quay, located on the

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct fr ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, England; part of the

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-Decembe ...

. It is found close by Yeolands Quarry, on the east side of the island within the area of

East Weares East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

and Penn's Weare.

History

Durdle Pier dates back to the 17th century and became one of the main stone shipping places on the east side. East and Penn's Weares were the location of

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

's first workings of stone to rebuild London after the

Great Fire of 1666 The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

. During the mid-19th century, the original crane was replaced with one made by Galpin of Dorchester. Once quarrying in the area ended, fishermen became the pier's main users for lifting boats from the water. The crane became broken and beyond repair in the early 21st century. During 2014 the pier's crane was destroyed by the sea. Close to the pier are two World War II pillboxes. The

Great Southwell Landslip The Great Southwell Landslip occurred in 1734 on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England near the southerly village of Southwell and extended for a length of between Durdle Pier Durdle Pier is a disused 17th-century stone shipping quay, located ...

, Britain's second-largest recorded historical landslide, occurred in 1734, between Durdle Pier and Freshwater Bay. The Dorset names

Durlston Bay Durlston Bay (also known as Durdlestone Bay) is a small bay next to a country park of the same name, just south of the resort of Swanage, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. It has been a renowned site for Lower Cretaceous fossils since the ...

and Head (in Swanage) and Durdle Pier, again without early spellings, can be associated etymologically with

Durdle Door Durdle Door (sometimes written Durdle Dor) is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England.West, I.W., 2003.Durdle Door; Geology of the Dorset Coast. Southampton University, UK. Version H.07.09.03. It is priva ...

References

{{Jurassic Coast Isle of Portland Piers in Dorset Jurassic Coast