- Articles View Hits
- 2343619
Brean Down Fort
Visited April 2012
Location | Brean Down, Somerset |
Entrance Fee | No |
Railway Station Nearby | No |
Parking | Yes |
Facilities | Yes- by the car park, not in the Fort |
Map |
Review
The fort was built in the 1860's under Lord Palmerston, to protect the Bristol Channel from the perceived threat of the French navy. It was manned by up to 50 men, but was never called into service and the military moved out in 1900. The only shot ever fired in anger from this fort was by a young Gunner Haines, who apparently committed suicide by blowing himself up by firing his rifle into a gunpowder magazine in 1900.
The fort was then used as a tea shop until it was called back into action again during WW2. It was refortified with coastal guns and searchlights, and was the testing site of some experimental weapons, such as the bouncing bomb. At the end of the war the fort was once again abandoned, until in 2002 it came into the care of the National Trust and opened up to the public. There is open access to most of the buildings, but the officers barracks and the lantern tunnels are only opened up by volunteers on certain days over the summer.
Alternative Review- By Next Biggest Sis (aged 6)
I went to Brean Down Fort. We had to climb a lot of steep, tiring steps. It said that there were goats there. We took a low path and a high path to get there. We walked past Flatholm & Steepholm Islands until we got to the fort. It was built in the Victorian times. Once we were there we went in a few rooms. Some stank of goats poo (Ed's note- Goats do live on the headland!!!) When we headed back to the car, we knew we had passed a path which was close to the Atlantic ocean as we could feel an Atlantic breeze. At that moment we headed back to the car. I liked the fort.