Dover's Western Heights Fortifications

Dover has always been Britain's main entry port and has been heavily fortified against invaders. Dover Castle dominates the town and gets about 300,000 visitors each year. I visited it recently. It is a large site with a range of things to see from a Roman lighthouse and a Saxon church to World War II tunnels.

It is interesting enough but rather overpriced and some of the exhibits are not very well done. There are a number of tunnel systems underneath the castle. One was built during the Napoleonic period, another during WW2 and a third in preparation for WW3. The first two are open to the public but there are usually long queues and too much Health and Safety hassle.

Dover has another set of fortifications; much larger than Dover Castle. Most visitors do not know they exist and they are free to visit. They are the Western heights forts. As the sign below says they were started in the 1770s and some parts are still in use.

 

There are three linked fortifications.  At one end there is a star fort called the Drop Redoubt. You can walk around the fort's ditch and occasionally the fort is opened to the public by the Western Heights Preservation Society. It was not open on the day I visited. At the other end is a larger start fort. This is closed to the public because it is in use as a government immigration removal centre.

In between the two forts is a series of dry moats called The Lines. You can visit these but they are heavily overgrown.

Drop Redoubt

Drop Redoubt ditch

Drop Redoubt ditch

Overgrown ditches of The Lines

The Grand Shaft is nearby.  It is usually closed but there are open days. It would be worth arranging your visit for when the Drop Redoubt and the Grand Shaft are open.

I have some other posts about star forts. Click on the starfort label to see them.

Britain built several  star forts and other fortifications to keep out Napoleon.  Link

There is a 1861  Palmerston Fort called  Fort Burgoyne just behind Dover Castle.  Photos.

Naarden Star Fort

This is my third post on star forts. You can see the others by clicking on the starfort tag on the right.

Naarden Star Fort is a few miles east of Amsterdam. The fort has been restored and is in very good condition, with a prosperous looking town inside the fortifications. It looks like an interesting and attractive place to live.

The fort's distinctive appearance aided the Allied bombing campaign during WW2. Bomber navigators used it as a turning point during raids on Germany.

There is a museum  inside one of the bastions [the arrowheads sticking out from the central part of the fort]. The exhibits looked interesting. Unfortunately the text was in Dutch.

The fort is well worth visiting if you happen to be in the vicinity.

As artillery developed castles became vulnerable and many were replaced by star forts. When artillery became even more effective polygonal forts were built instead. Fort Douaumont at Verdun is an example of such a fort.

Heusden Star Fort

Last year I posted about a visit to the star fort at Neuf-Brisach.  Star Forts were developed when cannons made medieval castle walls too vulnerable . The walls of a star fort are low and made of earth and brick, which is much less vulnerable to cannon fire. Deep ditches surround star forts and enfilading fire used to turn the ditches into killing zones for attackers.

On a recent trip to Germany I had the opportunity to make a slight detour to visit the star fort at Heusden in Holland. It was built to control traffic on the River Meuse. The  photograph below shows the fort, the town inside the fort and the river. It is not only one of the most attractive of the star forts, it must also have been one of the most difficult to assault.

The fort and town were destroyed in 1680 when lightening struck an ammunition store and detonated 60,000 pounds of gunpowder.

In 1987 the fort was restored using an old map of the town and fortifications. The restoration won a European Urbes Nostrae restoration prize and Heusden now attracts many hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

There are several marinas around the fort. You can see part of one of them in the photograph below. You can also see a ship loaded with containers going down the Meuse. In the old days the fort would have been able to block shipping with a barrier  and pepper anybody who tried to pass with cannon fire.

The photograph below shows a windmill powered pump and some cannon.

The town inside the fort seems very prosperous. The houses look expensive and are very well maintained. It appears to be a nice place to live.

The first time I tried to visit Heusden my GPS directed me to the wrong town. If you decide to visit the star fort the Heusden you want is about 60 km to the south east of Rotterdam.

I enjoyed my visit to Heusden. It is a place not only worth visiting, but going to visit.

A visit to Neuf-Brisach Star Fort

The star fort was developed when cannons made medieval castle walls too vulnerable . The walls of a star fort are low and made of earth and brick, which is much less vulnerable to cannon fire. Deep ditches surround star forts and enfilading fire used to turn the ditches into killing zones for attackers.

Many countries built star forts. Last year I visited Lucca in Italy and the older part of the city is inside a star fort.

Many military architects tried to get commissions to build start forts. In Bologna there is a museum display of wooden models that competing architects had created to sell their designs. In Paris fortification models are  on display in the Le Musée des Plans-Reliefs.

 

 

In France Vauban was involved in constructing hundreds of star forts. In 2008 UNESCO made twelve of Vauban's fortresses World Heritage sites.

Neuf-Brisach was one of the twelve forts recongnised by UNESCO. It looks spectacular form the air as can be seen from the photograph below.

 

I was passing the fort recently and called in to take a walk around the walls and the town. The town of Neuf-Brisach is entirely inside the walls of the fort.

  

  

  

  

The  town was bombarded by the Prussians in 1870 and the fort captured. In 1945 some trigger happy Americans bombarded the town, causing great loss of life, without even bothering to send a patrol to check if there were still any Germans in the town. They even shot the chap who went out to ask them to stop firing.

  

Perhaps because the town has been destroyed twice the buildings were not particularly distinguished, though the town appeared to be still fully occupied.