St Catherine's Chapel

Although no records survive of the chapel's construction, the chapel has been dated in style to the late 14th century, the same time as Abbotsbury's tithe barn was built. The chapel is built on a definite platform which could have been originally for a pagan temple. St Catherine's Chapel was built as a place of pilgrimage and retreat by the monks of the nearby Benedictine monastery Abbotsbury Abbey, which the chapel overlooks high up on the hilltop. Its position on the top of a hill about 80 m (260 ft) high, overlooking the coast from Portland Bill to Bridport, meant that it was a prominent feature for seafarers. Only a handful of chapels of the same kind are located outside the precincts…

The construction of the chapel, which has a rectangular structure, is entirely of locally quarried ashlar golden buff limestone. It is notably robust in order to withstand the elements; the walls are 4 ft thick and supported by stout buttresses, and the roof and even the paneled ceiling are also made of stone. The construction allows rainwater to drain off the roof through holes in the parapet wall between the buttresses. In the north-west corner is a tower. At the north-east corner a stair turret, octagonal on the outside, rises above the roof and gives access to the parapet. There is also a tiny oratory at roof level. The buttresses and the stair turret would have been originally crowned…

The chapel appears briefly in the Powell and Pressburger film The Small Back Room. The chapel was the inspiration behind PJ Harvey's song "The Wind", from her 1998 album Is This Desire?. PJ Harvey lives and grew up near Abbotsbury.