Fort George: An Eighteenth-Century Fortress in Scotland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- British
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page14 sections
History
Fort George is an eighteenth-century fortress in the United Kingdom near Ardersier, northeast of Inverness, built by the British Crown after the Jacobite rising of 1745. The Jacobites, supporters of the exiled Stuart dynasty, had launched a major rebellion in Britain in 1745 and 1746. The present fortress formed part of the Crown’s effort to control the Scottish Highlands and was built in the Georgian period.
The first Fort George
The present fortress replaced an earlier Fort George at Inverness, which had been constructed after the Jacobite rising of 1715 to control the surrounding region. The first fort occupied a hill beside the River Ness and incorporated parts of a medieval castle begun by Malcolm III, the Scottish king who reigned in the late eleventh century. Oliver Cromwell, the seventeenth-century English military and political leader, later strengthened the castle site as a citadel. By the early eighteenth century, however, the castle had been abandoned.
The first Fort George could accommodate 400 troops. Sir Robert Munro, 6th Baronet, Colonel of the 42nd Royal Highlanders, and chief of Clan Munro, became its first commanding officer. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, approximately 3,000 Jacobites besieged the fort. Crown forces could not send relief, and the garrison surrendered in February 1746 after mines had reached the outer walls. The victorious besiegers then blew up the fort to prevent its reuse as a British military base.
Construction at Ardersier
After the Crown victory at Culloden, Colonel William Skinner, the King’s Military Engineer for North Britain, received a contract in 1747 to rebuild Fort George at a new location about 10 miles, or 16 kilometres, from Inverness. The chosen site stood at the mouth of the Moray Firth, where the fortress could control the sea approach to Inverness.
Construction began in 1748 under Skinner. John, Robert, and later James Adam acted as contractors, while about 1,000 soldiers supplied labour and defended the building site against attack. The principal defences were in place by 1757, and the fortress was completed in 1769. The original construction budget was £92,673, 19 shillings, and 1 penny, while the final cost exceeded £200,000, an exceptionally large sum at the time.
A continuing military garrison
The present Fort George has never been attacked and has remained in continuous use as a garrison. It is owned by the Ministry of Defence, operated by the British Army, and continues to function as a military barracks. The Childers Reforms, late-nineteenth-century British Army changes that reorganized and amalgamated infantry regiments, brought the 72nd Regiment of Foot and the 78th Regiment of Foot together in 1881 to form the Seaforth Highlanders. Fort George became their depot.
In 1961, the Seaforth Highlanders merged with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders to create the Queen’s Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons), whose depot was also established at the fort. The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, made Fort George its home in 2007. In November 2016, the Ministry of Defence announced plans to close the site in 2032 because the Highland rebellions had ended. The planned closure was later delayed to 2033.
Interpretation and later history
Much of the fortress remains open to the public while the barracks continue in military use. Historic Environment Scotland presents reconstructions of early life at the fort. The Grand Magazine houses the Seafield Collection of Arms and supports historical performances depicting eighteenth-century soldiers. The former Lieutenant Governor’s House, once the residence of the senior officer responsible for administering the fortress, contains the Highlanders’ Museum, the official regimental museum of the Queen’s Own Highlanders and Lovat Scouts.
The museum’s displays cover regimental histories, clan connections, the Highland charge, military conflicts, and notable members including Sergeant Alexander Edwards. The regimental chapel contains regimental colours and memorials. The site of Old Fort George at Inverness remained abandoned for almost 70 years before a red-sandstone castellated building known as Inverness Castle was erected there in the mid-nineteenth century. Despite its towers and battlements, the later building was not military in purpose and served as a prison and courthouse.
Remains
Fortifications and approach
Star-shaped defences
Fort George occupies a level spit of land at Ardersier, about 11 miles, or 18 kilometres, northeast of Inverness. The promontory projects into the Moray Firth and commands the sea approach to Inverness. A harbour below the walls allowed the garrison to receive supplies by sea during a siege.
The fortress is a Georgian bastion fort, a defensive design with projecting angular structures that allow fire along the faces of the walls. Its star-shaped plan remains virtually unaltered, and its height reaches up to 12 metres, or 39 feet. Sandstone is the principal building material. The main walls are stone-faced, faceted, and angled, with projecting bastions and redoubts, which are detached or enclosed defensive works. Their arrangement allowed each wall face to be covered by guns positioned on higher walls.
Walls and underground chambers
The walls are several yards wide and covered with grass. Beneath them are barrel-vaulted casemates, or protected vaulted chambers, that formed underground bunkers for shielding the garrison from artillery fire. The fortress therefore used defence in depth, layering obstacles and firing positions so that an attacker had to pass through several defensive zones.
Entrance works
The landward approach crosses a broad area of loose shingle that formed a protective barrier. Sloping, grass-covered banks were designed to absorb artillery shells and conceal much of the fortress from view. The entrance is approached through a detached ravelin, an outwork placed in front of a fortress entrance, containing a guardhouse. The ravelin itself was exposed to fire from the main fort.
Beyond the ravelin, a raised wooden walkway and drawbridge cross a broad ditch between strongly defended bastions. The ditch served as an exposed killing ground overlooked by the walls. Ramps gave rapid access to the ramparts, while sentry boxes guarded the escarpment, the sloping outer face of the ditch.
Barracks and military buildings
Chapel and barracks
The fortress contains barracks, the former Lieutenant Governor’s House, the Grand Magazine, and the regimental chapel. An internal gate connects the chapel with the barracks. The eighteenth-century chapel has a two-level arcade on three sides, supported by Doric columns, a classical type with simple capitals.
Grand Magazine and gun
The Grand Magazine, the principal military storehouse for ammunition, displays the Seafield Collection of Arms. Fort George also contains the only surviving example of a Mk I rifled muzzle-loading 64-pounder gun weighing 64 hundredweight. This type of weapon was loaded through the barrel and used spiral grooves inside it to stabilize the projectile.
Highlanders’ Museum
The Highlanders’ Museum preserves and exhibits regimental uniforms, weapons, medals, photographs, paintings, memorabilia, and regimental insignia. Its holdings also include First World War memorial plaques known as death pennies, linking the preserved material to the military history of the regiments associated with Fort George.
Nearby sites
