Last weekend, people flocked to the Isle of Portland to celebrate the restoration and formal opening of the historic High Angle Battery site.
Local residents, volunteers, and organisations involved in restoring the site gathered to celebrate its transformation and the launch of Portland and Weymouth Towns of Culture 2025.
The High Angle Battery, locally known as the ghost tunnels, is a late Victorian gun battery built in the 1890s to defend Portland Harbour. Over time, it has fallen into disrepair, and in 2022 its outdated interpretation panels, graffiti, and heritage damage led to it being placed on the Heritage at Risk register.
In 2023, Dorset Council secured funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and other local partners to preserve and improve the heritage of this historically important site and help tell its story to a wider audience.
Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Dorset Council, support of Portland Town Council, and the help of partners, heritage experts, and the local community, the site has received a much-needed revamp and is now more accessible than ever with new interpretation panels, improved pathways, and increased biodiversity. Structural repairs have also been made to the site, along with vegetation clearance and litter removal.
Councillor Ryan Hope, Dorset Council’s Cabinet Member for Customer, Culture and Community Engagement, expressed his gratitude to all those involved: “Efforts to rediscover High Angle Battery have not only preserved a vital piece of our history but have also brought our community together in a shared effort to protect our heritage.”
As well as celebrating the completion of the project, the event also marked the launch of Portland and Weymouth Towns of Culture 2025 with the ‘State of Alarm‘ exhibition. This captivating sound installation by Mark Anderson and Liam Walsh transformed the High Angle Battery into a captivating sound world brought to life through an ensemble of visually striking instruments, sound sculptures and rhythmic notes. More exciting community events are planned for the site this summer, organised by local arts organisation b-side.
To find out more about the project to rediscover the High Angle Battery, visit the Dorset Council website.
Unearthing the Secrets of Portland’s Ghost Tunnels: Wartime Echoes from Beneath Dorset
Beneath the windswept isle of Portland in Dorset lies a hidden world; an eerie network of subterranean tunnels, relics of a wartime past that refuses to be forgotten. These so-called “ghost tunnels”, hewn from the island’s Jurassic limestone, are steeped in secrecy and sorrow. For decades, whispers have circulated of strange sounds, shadowy figures, and ghostly encounters that defy explanation. But the true stories may be even more haunting than the folklore.
The tunnels were originally expanded during World War II as part of Portland’s strategic military infrastructure. With the presence of the Portland Harbour naval base and its vulnerability to German air raids, the British government established an extensive underground system for storage, communication, and shelter. The precise number of tunnels and their full extent remain classified to this day, but what is known has captivated the imagination of locals and paranormal investigators alike.
According to wartime records and eyewitness accounts, several servicemen lost their lives in these very tunnels—not in combat, but during construction accidents, tunnel collapses, and even gas leaks. One of the most enduring legends involves a group of Royal Engineers who, in 1941, were trapped during an unexpected cave-in. Only two were pulled out alive. The others were declared dead, but their bodies were never recovered, sealed forever within the limestone tomb.
Visitors who have ventured into the restricted zones, often illegally, report cold gusts with no source, flickering torchlight when no batteries fail, and the faint echo of boots on stone. Some claim to have seen spectral figures in military uniform, their faces pale and eyes hollow, silently pacing the corridors as if still on duty.
A retired naval officer, who served at Portland in the 1960s, recalled hearing tapping noises beneath his barracks at night. “It sounded like Morse code,” he said. “But no one was down there. They checked it more than once. It was as if someone was still trying to send a message from the past.”
Local historians believe that the ghost tunnels may also have been part of a classified network used for intelligence operations during the war. Some sections were allegedly sealed off shortly after VE Day and not reopened since.
While there has never been official confirmation of paranormal activity in the tunnels, the Ministry of Defence has remained curiously tight-lipped about their wartime function. To this day, certain entrances are guarded or bricked up, with signs warning of unstable ground. Yet the legends persist—and so do the sightings.
Whether one believes in ghosts or not, the tunnels of Portland stand as a sobering monument to the men who served, suffered, and died out of sight. Theirs is a story quite literally buried beneath our feet, echoing through stone corridors where time has all but stood still.
What stories have you heard? What ghosts have you seen?
