Qualla: Fortifications of Plymouth

Fortifications of Plymouth: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit (WT-en) Patrickmacgougan at English Wikivoyage, Public domain. In August 1403 a French raiding party landed at Plymouth and burned what they could reach. King Henry IV's response was swift: he ordered the prior of Plympton and the abbot of Tavistock to fortify the town with walls and towers. The result was a castle of four towers overlooking the harbour, funded largely by Plymouth's own townspeople and run by the mayor and aldermen rather than the Crown. Only a fragment of that medieval castle survives today, in Lambhay Street at the head of the stairs down to the Mayflower Steps. But it set a pattern. For the next six centuries Plymouth would build, rebuild, and abandon defences in successive waves, each generation answering the threats of its own time.

Image: (WT-en) Patrickmacgougan at English Wikivoyage | Public domain

Fortifications of Plymouth: Tudor Blockhouses and a Chain Across the Harbour

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 1540, charts show six small artillery blockhouses placed around Plymouth Sound, each commanding the strip of water in front of it. Fisher's Nose Blockhouse on the headland at the eastern end of Plymouth Hoe is now a café. The Mount Edgcumbe Blockhouse, built by the Edgcumbe fa...

Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fortifications of Plymouth: The Siege

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wenceslaus Hollar, Public domain. When the English Civil War came in 1642, Plymouth declared for Parliament while most of Devon and Cornwall stood with the King. Royalist forces besieged the town from 1643 to 1646. The existing fortifications protected only the seaward approaches, so a ditch and earthen rampart w...

Image: Wenceslaus Hollar | Public domain

Fortifications of Plymouth: The Royal Citadel and the New Dockyard

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the monarchy was restored, the Crown built the Royal Citadel from 1665 to designs by Sir Bernard de Gomme, on the eastern end of the Hoe over the site of Drake's Fort. It is a bastion fort, and it is still in military use today as the base of 29 Commando Regiment of the Roya...

Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fortifications of Plymouth: Palmerston's Ring

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Adam Cuerden assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The greatest of Plymouth's defensive efforts came in response to Napoleon III. Lord Palmerston's Royal Commission of 1859 recommended a massive programme of new forts to defend the country's dockyards. Around Plymouth the recommendations took shape as two lines of coastal artille...

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Adam Cuerden assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Fortifications of Plymouth: What Remains

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Adam Cuerden assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. Some of the Palmerston forts have become museums, like Crownhill, restored by the Landmark Trust as the best-preserved of the type. Some have become wedding venues or holiday rentals. Some, like Staddon Fort, are now Royal Navy communications centres. Many simply sit in suburban ...

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Adam Cuerden assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain