Report - Fort Burgoyne - Dover - November 2012

REEF · Nov 29, 2012

Visited with The126

It was poring with rain and freezing cold so we decided to go for a wander on the hills surrounding Dover :rolleyes:

Fort Burgoyne is one of the Palmerston forts built around Dover in the 1860's. This site was used and added to in WW2 with pillboxes and gun emplacements. The two Wing Batteries are littered with slit trenches and mortar emplacements from the same era.

The fort overlooks Dover Castle and covers a weak spot in the defence of Dover. It's built in similar style to the other forts with a large ditch surrounding a polygonal structure. It has a double caponnier which we couldn't get access to and three more smaller caponniers.

We managed to see both the Wing Batteries and a large portion of the main site before running into one man and his dog and having to join him in a game of hide and seek.

Surrounding Ditch

They were shorter back then.

Inside one of the caponniers.

Gun port with rings for holding the guns.

Other features

Last ammo box

Soil samples??

Barracks

Need to go back, still more to see.

DuskyHawk · Jul 22, 2023

This place has changed a lot since then! It's in use again now, being refurbished for use by businesses and the grassy areas around the fort are now being managed for wildflowers, insects, etc. Apparently there are also 8 species of bats using the tunnels for roosting and hibernating, and swarming nearby in the summer too - as a result visits to the tunnels are not allowed for much of the year now, as it would disturb the bats. I was fortunate to join a guided tour there recently, and took a few photos so you can see how the place has changed.

This one was intriguing - the concrete was formed around a tree for some reason, perhaps it gave camouflage to a pillbox? The tree's long gone now, leave the impression of its branches