The name "Portland Bill" has its roots in "The Beel" as named on early maps. This derived from the beak shape of Portland Bill. From 1588 onwards, when the area was part of a crucial Armanda invasion-warning network, it was often named "The Beacon". Quarrying began at Portland Bill in the mid 19th century but remained a small scale operation into the early 20th century. Quarries were on the west side of the bill and stone was transported along a short tramway to a shipping quay, now the site of Red Crane. An area absorbed into the quarries was White Hole, where quarrymen cut away a natural arch to form Pulpit Rock in the 1870s. It was intentionally left as a quarrying relic and was formed with religious associations; the large slab of rock leaning against the main stack depicted an open bible leaning on a pulpit. Surrounding the rock is the rather charmingly-named Snail Shore, a surface containing snail, oyster and mollusc shells that once made up a Jurassic seabed thriving with marine life around 150 million years ago.

The name "Portland Bill" has its roots in "The Beel" as named on early maps. This derived from the beak shape of Portland Bill. From 1588 onwards, when the area was part of a crucial Armanda invasion-warning network, it was often named "The Beacon". Quarrying began at Portland Bill in the mid 19th century but remained a small scale operation into the early 20th century. Quarries were on the west side of the bill and stone was transported along a short tramway to a shipping quay, now the site of Red Crane. An area absorbed into the quarries was White Hole, where quarrymen cut away a natural arch to form Pulpit Rock in the 1870s. It was intentionally left as a quarrying relic and was formed with religious associations; the large slab of rock leaning against the main stack depicted an open bible leaning on a pulpit. Surrounding the rock is the rather charmingly-named Snail Shore, a surface containing snail, oyster and mollusc shells that once made up a Jurassic seabed thriving with marine life around 150 million years ago.