Portland Bill – The Real Location Behind The Lighthouse Murders
Portland Bill, at the southern tip of the Isle of Portland in Dorset, is the setting for The Lighthouse Murders, the eighth book in my Dorset Crime series. The lighthouse stands alone, facing out to sea like it's at the end of the world. And it's the perfect place for a murder.
What is the Isle of Portland like?
The Isle of Portland is a funny old place.
If you're driving there, you'll think you've arrived when you leave the causeway behind and start the ridiculously steep climb up the hill onto the island. Glance behind you and you'll see Weymouth and Chesil Beach, with the Fleet separating the two, and the rest of Dorset receding in your rear-view mirror.
But you're not there yet. If you're heading for Portland Bill and the lighthouse, you've got a surprising drive ahead of you. Because there's a lot more to the Isle of Portland than a handful of rocks and a lighthouse.
Portland is home to 13,500 people, 10,000 more than Lyme Regis out of season. It's a tight-knit and somewhat isolated community, connected to the mainland by just the one road. A community that reportedly includes people who have never, not once in their lives, left the island. I've never met any of them (I'd imagine they don't like Brummies), but I've been repeatedly assured that they exist.
Researching The Lighthouse Murders on Portland
Before writing about Portland, I'd only visited a couple of times. Once as a child, when I spent most of the trip in the back of my parents' car with my nose in a book. And once many years later, on a family holiday to Weymouth, when we drove over one evening to photograph the lighthouse at sunset.
So when I spent a day exploring the island in the winter of 2022–23, it was with a real sense of adventure.
Portland is a fascinating shape in cross-section. At its northern end it rises precipitously, with spectacular views over Chesil Beach. Then from the top of the hill at Portland Heights, the land slopes much more gradually southwards, until it reaches its tip at Portland Bill. Basically, it's a wedge.
It was a clear, crisp December day, and as the road switchbacked up the hill the coastline was laid out beneath me. To the east, Weymouth. To the west, the long, slender finger of Chesil Beach. At the top I took the first turn-off I could find and parked, so I could admire the view without risking an accident.
The island was bigger than I'd expected. And much more 'normal', or what normal looks like to a Brummie like me. Instead of driving through quaint villages made of local stone, like the ones on the Isle of Purbeck, I passed relatively modern-looking towns and villages, with the kind of architecture I'd expect in parts of Birmingham, not Dorset. I made some interesting finds on the way, and all of them made it into the book.
The bird observatory and the huts at Portland Bill
As I approached the lighthouse, two landmarks struck me. The first was a lone building on the approach, along a track on the left towards the sea. I later found out it's a bird observatory. Needless to say, it became a key location in the book.
The second was the row of wooden huts between the road and the cliffs, separating the observatory from the lighthouse. They looked a lot like beach huts, but they were nowhere near a beach. Instead they were perched on the headland on one of Dorset's most inhospitable stretches of coastline.
They had to go in the book too. I later spoke to some locals and learned that they're old coastguard cottages, now used as beach huts, or the Portland equivalent. They belong to Portland residents and act as a base for days out and socialising. On top of one of the windiest clifftops on the south coast of England. They're hardy folk, those Portlanders.
Inside Portland Bill Lighthouse
Finally, it was time for the lighthouse. I got lucky: not only was it open, but they were running guided tours.
Guided tours are a writer's dream. Not only do you get to see the spot where you're planning to fictionally bump someone off, you also get insider tips and location detail from someone who really knows the place.
The lighthouse at Portland Bill is iconic. It stands alone, facing out to sea, and the view from the top is spectacular. Inside you can see the old light mechanism: massive, intricate, and the perfect place to leave a body.
In the book, a body is found inside the lighthouse. And the crime scene is half an hour further away than DCI Lesley Clarke expects. Looking at the map before setting off, she has it in her head that once she's past Weymouth she's effectively there. But no. It takes twenty minutes of climbing a vast hill in the dark, then descending again, more slowly, towards the sea, to reach the lighthouse.
It stands alone, facing out to sea like it's at the end of the world. And that's exactly how it feels.
Real locations in The Lighthouse Murders
Portland Bill
Portland Bill Lighthouse
Chesil Beach
The Portland quarries
Portland Harbour
The Verne prison
The bird observatory
The old coastguard cottages
Read more
New to the series? Start with The Corfe Castle Murders, or get the prequel novella The Ballard Down Murder free.
