Polhawn Fort

Polhawn Fort is a fort, later adapted for use as a hotel in the early 20th century and now a house, built in 1865 with very few subsequent alterations. Constructed of limestone rockfaced coursed rubble, it has granite dressings and quoins, with brick dressings also used. The plan features a splayed front with three bays to the right and four to the left, a single-storey ravelin to the rear centre, and a stair tower at each end. The fort is single-storey with a basement used for stores and a magazine.

The front elevation has seven embrasures for guns, each with segmental heads, stepped and splayed reveals, and a bull-nose moulding above acting as a string course, topped by a parapet and a chamfered overhanging blocking course. The basement level on the right side has three narrower splayed embrasures, containing triplet casement windows with four panes to each. A similar triplet window is situated on the left side. The right end features the bull-nose moulding returning from the front, while the left end also has a returning moulding and a wide segmental-headed opening at ground level, leading to the basement. The rear has a central single-storey ravelin with small embrasures on either side, and a blocking course. To the left and right of the ravelin, three segmental brick arches, each five courses of brickwork high, are positioned over pairs of casement windows with twelve panes per light, set within granite surrounds. The bull-nose moulding continues around the rear, with a parapet and coping; the parapet ramps up to the left, and brick stacks rise from the parapet. Greenhouses stand on the roof behind the front parapet, and a half-glazed door in a porch on the roof to the rear right provides access to the stair. A drawbridge over the rear ditch, with remaining pulley chains, gives access to the roof’s rear.

Inside, the stair towers at the rear left and right have cantilevered granite newel stairs. The ground floor contains vaulted bays with partition walls, and some embrasures retain the semicircular metal track in the floor for pivoting gun carriages. Segmental-arched doorways connect the vaulted chambers. The basement includes a shell-chute, and the magazine door is four-panelled with strap hinges and features printed lettering reading 'MAGAZINE'. Store rooms and barrack accommodation occupy the front right, each lit by a triplet window. The interior remains largely unaltered.

The fort was commissioned in 1859, following public pressure after news of French iron-clad warships emerged. This commission considered the defences of the United Kingdom under the direction of Palmerston. The design was handled by the Royal Engineers, under Colonel (later Lt. General) Sir W.F. Drummond Jarvis RE. Polhawn Fort was intended to command the approach to the eastern side of Whitsand Bay and cost £8850.