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Opening Times
Monday: 9am-2pm
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday - Sunday: 9am-2pm

Ordnance Survey Ref: SK498 552
(Land Ranger Sheet 120)

Portland Park is a regular winner of the Green Flag Award.

The Visitor Centre, opened in October 1994, is an environmentally-friendly building and a centre of excellence for energy conservation.

As well as the outstanding walks within the Park the centre is an ideal starting point for the Three Centres Trail, plus the many other adjoining walks.

The centre and many of the park's routes are accessible to wheelchairs.

A small area of what is now the Park was leased to Kirkby Urban Council (as it then was) in 1910 from the Duke of Portland.

In 1914 the Duke and Duchess of Portland celebrated both their Silver Wedding Anniversary and the 21st birthday of their son William Arthur Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland (16 Mar 1893 - 21 Mar 1977). The Duke wrote to the then chairman of Kirkby Council: "To mark these happy events I trust you will do us the honour of accepting on behalf of the parishioners, a gift." The gift was Portland Park.

Kirkby Urban Council developed Portland Park as a recreational area for local people. The Park was then a universal rendezvous on a Sunday, for church services, family walks and picnics, listening to the band in concert, tennis, or just playing on the swings.

Up until the 1960s all the paths in Portland Park involved crossing over or under railway bridges. In fact, the main pathway to the west of the Park was originally an embankment built to carry the first railway within the district.

The Park ceased to be managed intensively as a public recreation area at the start of World War II when staff were called up or redeployed on more essential work. Since that time, it has developed into a mixture of woodland and grassland areas which, together with a number of small ponds and streams, are home to a wide variety of wildlife.

The original Visitor Centre was devastated by fire on the night of October 17th 1992, cause unknown. The new centre was made possible by generous financial help from the European Community, the Countryside Commission, Ashfield District Council and the Kirkby and District Conservation Society.

The site is particularly important because it is situated on Magnesian limestone, part of a narrow band running northwards up the west side of the county. The limestone supports calcerous vegetation that is rare in Nottinghamshire and uncommon in Britain generally.

The unique nature of the vegetation meant that the Park and the surrounding areas were designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Park itself is a Local Nature Reserve and the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has a Nature Reserve, Bentinck Banks, to the west of the railway line.