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The YOI and Mysterious Caves

Portland, Dorset

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The above image is copyright Dorset County Council 2000 and is reproduced here with permission.

The Youth Offender Institution (YOI) dominates the area on top of the cliffs.

A view from space of the YOI can be seen by clicking here.

In the cliffs are several caves which go deep into the rocks.

There are many old pictures of this Institution when it was a prison and later a Borstal, please click here.

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Please click here to see this area on Google Street View.

THE YOUNG OFFENDERS INSTITUTION (YOI)

The YOI dominates the skyline in the view taken with a 200 mm lens over Weston.

At left above we see the entrance to the YOI in Grove Road. For a Victorian view of this entrance please click here. Above right is the rear entrance running down the cliff edge path overlooking East Weares. The pictures below show the view looking over the wall on the right.

The area of West Weares shown in the above pictures contained, until recently, a large number of historical World War 2 buildings but these have all been reduced to rubble to make way for a gas storage scheme.

The idea is to store natural gas in vast caverns created 1.5 miles deep under Portland. This should provide emergency storage to protect the UK against interruption or variations in supplies of imported natural gas. These caverns will store (according to the display board) 5% of the energy needed in the UK for a cold winter's day. I read this as supplying just one hour's worth of energy from a full cavern. If this is true it seems to be an enormously expensive project for a small gain. If, on the other hand, the caverns can supply 5% of the UK energy requirements per day - then how long will that level be maintained before the cavern is empty?

This area may also become the site of an electrical generation plant burning Palm Oil. This is controversial and a protest organisation ('No Oil Palm Energy' - please click here for details) has been set up.

Going to the wall at the cliff edge behind the YOI and leaning carefully over will reveal a precarious path sloping down.

A few metres along this path is the opening to a cave system. Indeed, there are several dramatic caves in this area but this particular cave has a set of rails going into the mouth which were once used to support a pipe.

Here we see my daughter posing in the entrance. The rails can be seen on the tunnel floor.

Caves are dangerous! Never enter into a cave without  proper equipment and in the company of an expert caver!

More Pictures by Kind Permission of Liam Deeney

I have to emphasise again that under no circumstances should anyone enter a cave without a qualified guide.

According to the sign at the top of the path to the sea, this leads to 'Ye Old Donovan's Drain' but who old Donovan was or is I have no idea.

This goat-proof gate has been installed on the path down to the old railway track.

One day I looked up at the cliff from below the YOI and spotted this glowering face - upper middle - cast in the rocks - or is it my imagination?

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