Much reported in years gone by but not since 2012, so here's a short update - short because things went wrong. Visited with @Kirkymole, a few police officers and a group of young chavs.
Access is much harder than before and the site lies within the area of the Portland Port. Cameras are present and the Port Police can respond in minutes.
HISTORY
The East Weare Batteries area comprises of 19th century Victorian defences alongside the 20th century brickwork of the Disaster Relief Exercise buildings (DISTEX).
The battery was built in the 1860s as a result of the Royal Commission to guard the new Portland Harbour and Royal Navy institutions on the island. Five open batteries were built housing 20 9" and 10" RMLs. In 1900, they were replaced by three 6-inch Breech Loading (BL) guns, and again by two 9.2-inch Breech Loading (BL) guns by World War II.
REPORT
The first stop was a look around “The German House”. A small building that has the emblems of two German ships on the side. “Bremen” and “Emden”. The interior is completely stripped of fixtures and the roof long-gone.
Nearby is a large building with a large Portland stone archway with iron gates leading into a courtyard.
Down the hill via an old coastguard lookout building, you find yourself at the entrance of a street-like section. Herein lies the former DISTEX site. Ship crews from Britain and various other countries would carry out exercises and riot training along this stretch of ground and inside the buildings surrounding it. A lot of effort went in to the exercises to make them as real-to-life as possible.
Further along, the mix of Victorian and 20th century building-works continues with lots of small rooms in a large stone building. Cosy fireplaces can be seen.
At this point it became obvious that we were not alone. A small group of youths could be seen and heard loudly abusing the two resident caretakers. Then the police car arrived. We hid under a window only for that car to park right up outside the same window (which wasn't a window at all but rather just the hole where a window once stood). So for a long time we laid there in the pigeon shit resisting the temptation to move in any way whatsoever. It became obvious that the police weren't moving so we eventually gave ourselves up - only to find out that they didn't even know that us two were on the site.
To cut a long story short we were told that the site is criminal trespass due to a new bylaw which came into force in December and they were eager to get the first prosecution in. After explaining that we were not the youths they were looking for and on the promise that I informed the community of the new bylaw we were allowed to go. So here goes: it's criminal this place, so don't go. There done my part of the deal.
So we left only to be met by more police officers at the exit. Police cars could be seen at all the possible exits. Bags were searched and again we were threatened with prosecution. Managed to bore the Police Officers to death by showing them the photo of the rare seabird that I saw on the site. As I waffled on about all things related to birds, the police just seemed to switch off and allowed us to go. Relief but insulting in a way as I find birds interesting.
Access is much harder than before and the site lies within the area of the Portland Port. Cameras are present and the Port Police can respond in minutes.
HISTORY
The East Weare Batteries area comprises of 19th century Victorian defences alongside the 20th century brickwork of the Disaster Relief Exercise buildings (DISTEX).
The battery was built in the 1860s as a result of the Royal Commission to guard the new Portland Harbour and Royal Navy institutions on the island. Five open batteries were built housing 20 9" and 10" RMLs. In 1900, they were replaced by three 6-inch Breech Loading (BL) guns, and again by two 9.2-inch Breech Loading (BL) guns by World War II.
REPORT
The first stop was a look around “The German House”. A small building that has the emblems of two German ships on the side. “Bremen” and “Emden”. The interior is completely stripped of fixtures and the roof long-gone.
Nearby is a large building with a large Portland stone archway with iron gates leading into a courtyard.
Down the hill via an old coastguard lookout building, you find yourself at the entrance of a street-like section. Herein lies the former DISTEX site. Ship crews from Britain and various other countries would carry out exercises and riot training along this stretch of ground and inside the buildings surrounding it. A lot of effort went in to the exercises to make them as real-to-life as possible.
Further along, the mix of Victorian and 20th century building-works continues with lots of small rooms in a large stone building. Cosy fireplaces can be seen.
At this point it became obvious that we were not alone. A small group of youths could be seen and heard loudly abusing the two resident caretakers. Then the police car arrived. We hid under a window only for that car to park right up outside the same window (which wasn't a window at all but rather just the hole where a window once stood). So for a long time we laid there in the pigeon shit resisting the temptation to move in any way whatsoever. It became obvious that the police weren't moving so we eventually gave ourselves up - only to find out that they didn't even know that us two were on the site.
To cut a long story short we were told that the site is criminal trespass due to a new bylaw which came into force in December and they were eager to get the first prosecution in. After explaining that we were not the youths they were looking for and on the promise that I informed the community of the new bylaw we were allowed to go. So here goes: it's criminal this place, so don't go. There done my part of the deal.
So we left only to be met by more police officers at the exit. Police cars could be seen at all the possible exits. Bags were searched and again we were threatened with prosecution. Managed to bore the Police Officers to death by showing them the photo of the rare seabird that I saw on the site. As I waffled on about all things related to birds, the police just seemed to switch off and allowed us to go. Relief but insulting in a way as I find birds interesting.
I would probably talk to the one that's a bird finatic and get rumbled straight away 
