The New Murrey and Blue blog

High on a cliff on the Isle of Portland near Weymouth , Dorset (not really an island; it’s joined to the land by a long causeway) stands the battered block of an ancient castle looking out across the waves. It is privately owned, so not accessible for touring , but it is clearly visible from the path in both directions.

The castle is unusual in that it bears the name ‘Rufus’ indicating it may have been built by William II, whose nickname was Rufus. This early castle was likely to have been wooden or mostly so. Later, during the Anarchy, it was captured for Empress Maud by her half-brother, Robert Earl of Gloucester. Futher fortifications were added by Richard de Clare, Aymer de Lusignan, and another Robert Earl of Gloucester in the 1200’s.

The castle as we see it today, however, is almost solely from the rebuilding of Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III, sometime after 1432. The castle is octagonal in shape and unusually, has gun ports in the walls rather than arrowslits, attesting to its later building phase when cannons were just beginning to come into use. Remaining corbels at the roofline would have held a large, projecting turret. There were steps, now vanished, that led down the cliffside to a church, now also lying in ruins.

Again, like so many things connected with Richard III’s family, there is little known about why the Duke of York rebuilt Rufus Castle. Possibly it is because many of the ports nearby had Yorkist sympathies.

The castle was in poor condition and placed on the ‘At Risk’ register in 2008, but now had been repaired and consolidated. There is a 3D ‘tour’ of the castle on the website of the local museum. https://portlandmuseum.co.uk/rufus-castle/