The tunnel behind this notice leads to the Verne Citadel, now a medium
security prison for 575 men.The citadel was designed by Capt. Crossman R.E. 
and built by convicts from Portland prison between 1860 and 1872. It was a 
50 acre fortress for 1000 troops with gun emplacements facing seawards on 
three sides. In 1888 the permanent armament consisted of 9 fixed and 10 
mobile artillery pieces. From 1903 the citadel was used as an infantry 
barracks and the guns were removed in 1906 though their emplacements remain 
to this day. 

Many regiments of the line served at the Verne. They are listed on a tablet 
in St. Peter's church, Portland.

After 1937 the Verne was used mainly as an infantry training center. The last 
military personnel at the Verne, appropriately in view of its designer, were 
men of the Royal Engineers who left in 1948.

On the 1st of February 1949, the Verne having been handed over to the then 
prison commission, an advance party of 20 prisoners arrived, since then the 
interior of the prison has been substantially rebuilt by prison It is now a 
modern prison with a considerable training Programme for medium and long term 
prisoners.