After having a quick look at (what was once) Weymouth Union Workhouse, I walked down a small embankment nearby onto the Rodwell Trail (below), then walked for 10-15 minutes to Sandsfoot Castle from where I was able to get amazing views out to sea like the one above.
Have just read that Sandsfoot Castle (once an artillery fort) was built by order of Henry VIII and completed by 1542 to protect against invasion from France and other forces from continental Europe. Have also just read that during the English Civil War (1642-1651), the Castle was held by both Parliamentarians and Royalists in turn.
In 'The Hardy Way' (page 167), Margaret Marande reveals that Sandsfoot Castle "housed a Royal Mint during Royalist occupation in the Civil War" and that fragments of "medieval stonework found in the ruins are believed to have originated in Bindon Abbey, Wool".
Moreover, Marande reminds that in 'The Well-Beloved', Jocelyn Pierston had hoped that "Avice Caro would walk along the beach with him to the castle on the evening when he left the Isle of Slingers", but she had not done so through fear that such a walk would've made people think that she and Pierston "had adhered to the Island custom of trial marriage, which in the past had tested a woman's fertility to reproduce true Portland stock", and, in the end, "it is Marcia Bencomb who walks past the ruined castle with him after the storm" ('The Hardy Way', page 168)
Finally, I've just read that Sandsfoot Castle, built from Portland stone, was withdrawn from military use in 1665.
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