Darnet Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

Fort Darnet occupies an islet of mud and marsh at the tip of Darnet Ness, in the middle of the Medway estuary, downstream from the former Chatham Dockyard. Together with Hoo Fort, built opposite, it formed the inner line of defence recommended by the 1859 Royal Commission on Defence, a programme that gave England some seventy forts and batteries. The work is a circular battery about 56 m in diameter, of brick faced with granite on a ragstone base, surrounded by a ditch and a long glacis. Eleven vaulted casemates were to hold eight 9-inch and three 7-inch muzzle-loading guns; the lower level housed magazines and accommodation. Never engaged in combat, the fort was decommissioned before 1914 and then brought back into use as an observation post during the Second World War. Today its lower level is flooded, but the structure remains remarkably complete; the island is accessible only by boat.