page_title: Portland Harbour
hierarchical_section_title: Portland Harbour
caption_attribution_description: HMS&#160;Hood English: Portland harbour's south entrance
context_page_description: Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its 520-hectare surface area made it the largest man-made harbour in the world, and remains one of the largest in the world today. It is naturally protected by Portland to the south, Chesil Beach to the west and mainland Dorset to the north. It consists of four breakwaters — two southern and two northern. These have a total length of 4.57 km and enclose approximately 1,000 hectares of water.
  Portland Harbour was built by the Admiralty as a facility for the Royal Navy; on 11 December 1923 it was formally designated HM Naval Base Portland, and continued to serve as such until closure in 1995.
context_section_description: Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its 520-hectare (1,300-acre) surface area made it the largest man-made harbour in the world, and remains one of the largest in the world today. It is naturally protected by Portland to the south, Chesil Beach to the west and mainland Dorset to the north. It consists of four breakwaters — two southern and two northern. These have a total length of 4.57 km (2.84 miles) and enclose approximately 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of water.  
  Portland Harbour was built by the Admiralty as a facility for the Royal Navy (though access was also available to merchant ships); on 11 December 1923 it was formally designated HM Naval Base (HMNB) Portland, and continued to serve as such until closure in 1995.
caption: Southern and eastern entrances of Portland Harbour looking northeast from the Isle of Portland across Balaclava Bay. The dark colour of the water between the two breakwaters in the foreground indicates the position of the scuttled battleship HMS Hood.
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