Fort Charlotte: An Artillery Fort Protecting Lerwick’s Maritime Passage
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- British
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page11 sections
History
Fort Charlotte is a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artillery fort in Lerwick, United Kingdom, rebuilt in 1781 to protect the Sound of Bressay, the tidal waterway separating Shetland Mainland from Bressay, and the maritime passage between them. Its history reflects a series of wartime fortifications, followed by changing military and civic uses.
The Anglo-Dutch Wars
The first fortification on the site was built in 1652–1653 during the First Anglo-Dutch War, a naval conflict between England and the Dutch Republic. Little is known about this structure, and no trace of it has been identified.
A second fort was constructed on the same site in 1665, at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The court architect Robert Mylne built it on the orders of Charles II, the English king whose restoration to the throne in 1660 preceded the work. Construction cost £28,000.
In 1667, a Dutch fleet chose not to attack because the fort appeared more heavily manned and armed than it really was. Its walls remained unfinished and it had few guns. After the war, the government deliberately weakened the fort and decided not to maintain a garrison at Lerwick. The unmanned fort was seized and burned by the Dutch in 1673 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
Rebuilding in 1781
Most of the present complex was rebuilt in 1781 and named Fort Charlotte after Queen Charlotte, the queen consort of George III. The reconstruction and rearming were linked to renewed wartime concern over the Sound of Bressay. The fort was intended to help protect Greenland-bound whalers from French privateers and responded to naval activity off Shetland in 1778–1779 associated with John Paul Jones, a naval commander involved in American maritime operations during the American War of Independence.
The 1781 garrison comprised 270 soldiers from the Earl of Sutherland’s Regiment. Since that rebuilding, the fort has not been attacked or used in hostilities.
Later military and civic uses
Fort Charlotte housed a garrison during the Napoleonic Wars, the conflicts between Napoleonic France and its opponents from the late eighteenth century to 1815. From 1837 to 1875, it served as Lerwick’s town jail and courthouse. It was later used as a customs house and a coastguard station.
The fort also served the Royal Naval Reserve, a British naval reserve force made up of trained civilian personnel. Between 1881 and 1910, it functioned as a Shetland training base. Historic Environment Scotland now manages the fort, which serves as the base of 212 Highland Battery, an artillery unit of Britain’s Army Reserve.
Land reclamation and later construction in front of the fort have reduced its former dominance over the shoreline. These changes also mean that the overall ground plan can now be seen only from the air.
Remains
Fort Charlotte is a roughly pentagonal artillery fort organized around a parade ground. Its massive sea-facing wall is pierced by gun embrasures, openings through which artillery could fire. Bastions, projecting fortifications designed to allow defensive fire along adjoining walls, occupy the three landward corners, while half-bastions, reduced corner forms, stand at the ends of the seaward face.
Defensive walls and artillery
Sea-facing defences
The coastal battery contained nine guns. The west bastion carried the heaviest armament, with five guns, while the sea-facing wall provided the principal defensive frontage. The original guns were removed in 1855. Four replica eighteen-pounder guns were installed in 1995.
Gateways
Three gateways gave access through the fortifications. The main gate stood between the west and south-west bastions, linking the entrance with the defended interior.
Interior buildings
Barracks and parade ground
Barracks were arranged around the parade ground on three sides, creating the principal accommodation area within the fort. The arrangement reflects the site’s continued use as a garrison after its rebuilding in 1781.
Kitchen, guardrooms, and magazines
The kitchen occupied the northern part of the fort. Guardrooms and artillery magazines were located in the south, while the powder magazine stood on the north-east bastion. Newer buildings now surround the fort on all sides, and structures along the shore, together with reclamation, obscure the complete ground plan from ground level.
