Legend has it that Chesil Beach was cast up by a violent storm.
However, the truth is more prosaic. It is believed that at the end of the last glacial period, 10,000 years ago, rising sea levels pushed vast quantities of rock debris and seabed material inshore by large waves from the south west.
The beach is 18 miles long and stretches from Portland to West Bay.
It is said that shipwrecked sailors could tell exactly where they were on the beach by the size of the pebbles which are fist-sized at Portland reducing to pea-size at the westernmost point.
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