North Gate And Attached Dockyard Walls

The North Gate and attached dockyard walls, built in the 1870s, serve as a gateway and boundary for the dockyard in Devonport. The gateway features a limestone ashlar structure with rubble and ashlar walls. It is flanked by two large, rusticated square piers that have round-arch doorways, each adorned with wrought-iron fanlights bearing the initials "VR." These doorways lead into brick-vaulted passages. Above the entrance, there is a thin string course and a moulded cap with stepped bases supporting ball finials. The gateway is fitted with 20th-century timber double doors, topped by a wrought-iron overthrow and a hexagonal lamp.

The quadrant walls extend forward and include five rifle loops, leading to plain piers that connect to the dock walls, which feature half-round coping. These dock walls stretch approximately 450 meters to the south and southwest, meeting the 18th-century yard walls attached to the Morice Gate, and extend about 250 meters to the northwest and southwest to enclose the northern end of the Morice Yard.

Historically, the yard was established by the Board of Ordnance in 1720, and the 18th-century dockyard walls were expanded during the mid-19th century when the North Gate was constructed. This gateway is a significant feature that helps define the 19th-century extent of what is recognized as the best-preserved 18th-century naval ordnance yard in the country.