Upnor Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the north-west bank of the Medway, opposite the former Chatham Dockyard, Upnor Castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort built to protect the Crown's warships sheltering in the estuary. Its long garrison lodging, its gatehouse topped by a bell turret and its triangular bastion projecting into the river make up one of the most distinctive military silhouettes in Kent. The fort faced its moment of truth in June 1667, when De Ruyter's Dutch squadron broke the chain barring the Medway and attacked the English fleet: the improvised defence at Upnor helped to halt the assault. Considered outdated by the new forts of the estuary, it became a gunpowder magazine as early as 1668, a role it retained under the Ordnance and then the Admiralty until after the Second World War. Crown property in the guardianship of the State, the fortress has been managed since May 2026 by English Heritage, which offers regular guided tours. The water bastion still displays six 19th-century cannon on wooden carriages.