Tout Quarry Sculpture Park

A sculpture park in the disused Tout Quarry on the Isle of Portland, begun in 1983 by the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust the year after quarrying ended. Sixty to seventy works are carved into its old faces and spoil, among them Antony Gormley's 'Still Falling', and the Trust still teaches stone carving there.

The mining history in this record

Tout Quarry, in the north-west corner of Tophill, was one of some eighty quarries on Portland and was worked commercially from about 1780. Tramways ran through it, taking waste to be tipped over the cliff edge and block stone to Priory Corner for the Merchants' Railway down to Castletown and shipment; Lano's Bridge was built in the mid-nineteenth century to carry a high-level waste tramway. The quarry's last work, in 1982, was a contract for 30,000 tons of boulders for sea defences.

In 1983 the newly formed Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust turned the quarry into a sculpture park, saving it from further extraction. Sculptors carved directly into the abandoned faces and blocks, some works lasting barely a year and many surviving: Antony Gormley's 'Still Falling', a Dutch group's stone circle, Stephen Marsden's 'Fallen Fossil' and Justin Nicol's 'Window' among them. The Trust, dedicated to understanding stone and the landscape it comes from, runs carving, lettercutting and relief courses in an outdoor workshop in the quarry each summer, and was runner-up for a British Urban Regeneration award in 2008.

People

Antony Gormley, sculptor ('Still Falling'). Stephen Marsden and Justin Nicol, sculptors. Groupe 85, the Dutch group that made the stone circle.

Legacy today

Tout Quarry Sculpture Park has also been a nature reserve since about 2004 and is among Dorset Wildlife Trust's reserves; the quarry is now closed to new carvings outside the Trust's tuition area.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust began the sculpture park in Tout Quarry in 1983, the year after quarrying ended, saving the quarry from further extraction. (documented fact) ^1,2
• More than sixty sculptures are carved into the old quarry's rocks; other counts give over seventy. (documented fact) ^1,3,2
• Antony Gormley's 'Still Falling' is among the carvings. (documented fact) ^1,2
• Tout was worked commercially from about 1780 until 1982, its last job a boulder contract of 30,000 tons for sea defences. (documented fact) ^1,3
• The Trust runs stone-carving courses in an outdoor workshop in the quarry each summer. (documented fact) ^1,2

Mines

• Tout Quarry — Dorset
  The disused quarry has been the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust's sculpture park since 1983, with works carved into its abandoned faces and waste.

Sources

1. (secondary) Tout Quarry — Wikipedia
2. (observational) Tout Quarry, Portland, Dorset: an open-air sculpture park — Carvings with Stories
3. (secondary) Tout Quarries — Dorset Wildlife Trust
4. (observational) Sheep head, Tout Quarry Sculpture Park (Geograph 6567667) — Geograph

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026