Palmerston Forts

The Palmerston Forts were a group of forts and related structures built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom.

The name comes from their association with Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister at the time and promoted the idea. The Forts were built to defend a number of key areas of the British, Irish and Channel Island coastlines, in particular the areas around military bases.

More generally applied to forts constructed in England, rather than Scotland, they also came to be known as Palmerston's Follies, as the threat had passed by the time they were completed in the 1880s, if it had ever existed. This description was probably unfair, as the changes that led to it being coined took place after the forts were commissioned, and after warship development had advanced both quickly and significantly.

Three coastal batteries built on the Clyde have been described as Palmerston Forts:

• Ardhallow Battery: Dunoon
• Fort Matilda: Greenock
• Portkil Battery: Clyde

External links

• The Palmerston Forts Society

Map

Recent Page Trail: Secrets/BritishUnderwaterTestAndEvaluationCentre >> Secrets/ArdencapleCastle >> Secrets/Saztec >> Secrets/RhubanaLodge >> Secrets/SilicaSandMineLochaline