En un regard
Le château en bref
Fort Bovisand is a casemated coastal battery built between 1861 and 1869 on the eastern shore of the entrance to Plymouth Sound, in the parish of Wembury (Devon). It faces Picklecombe Fort on the other side of Rennie's breakwater, and together with it and with the Breakwater Fort in the middle of the Sound it formed the barrier that protected Plymouth Dockyard. It was built as part of the major fortification programme launched after the 1859 Royal Commission report, which was written amid fears of a French invasion. It replaced an older battery at Staddon Point. The fort was designed by Major Whitworth Porter and built by the firm George Baker and Company. The original plan for a two-tier battery was reduced to a single tier of 23 casemates arranged in an arc facing the sea, all in granite ashlar and protected by wrought-iron shields. The rifled muzzle-loading guns were removed between 1895 and 1903. Hotchkiss quick-firing guns had been added in 1885 to cover a minefield, and the fort was adapted again during the Second World War. Abandoned by the Ministry of Defence in 1956, it became a renowned national diving centre from 1970 until the business failures of 2000. It was bought in 2004 and then became the subject of a mixed redevelopment scheme (housing, commercial units, heritage) begun in 2021. It is one of the best-preserved coastal batteries in the area.
