Fort Popton

Fort Popton is a late 18th-century fort, with group value. The barracks, located at the rear of the fort, were designed to accommodate ten officers and 260 men. They are arranged as a six-sided figure with bastions at each corner. Originally, the entrance was at the northeastern side, accessed via a drop bridge, which was later replaced by a rolling bridge; this bridge is now absent. The interior features a parade ground, now grassed, surrounded by buildings integrated into the fort’s walls. Following the clockwise sequence as shown on a 1887 plan, Side 1 houses a canteen, school, and library; Side 2 contains officers' quarters; Side 3 includes a wash house, hospital, and staff sergeants' quarters. Soldiers' quarters occupy Sides 4, 5, and 6. Adjacent to the entrance are a guard room and cells. The southwest bastion formerly held latrines, now removed, while the west bastion contained coal bunkers, now gone, although the lightning conductor above them remains.

Externally, the barracks are largely complete, with the exception of the missing entrance bridge. Original pitched roofs have been replaced with concrete and asphalt flat roofs. Some sections of the intramural buildings’ facades have been altered to create workshops, and modern windows and doors now occupy original openings.

The fort also includes batteries facing west (Moncrieff battery with casemate gun emplacements), northwest, and north (open battery). Minor buildings at the rear have been lost. The ground behind the batteries was quarried for oil tanks, which have since been removed, leaving a shallow pool. A sally-port at the western end of the south wall has a door constructed of rolled wrought iron plate reinforced with chain links.

Underground arsenals are located beneath both batteries and are now occupied by rare fauna. Two George III cannon were used as pivot blocks in the open battery; one remains in situ, while the other has been restored and installed on a Martello Tower in Pembroke.

The exterior masonry, and the frontages of the intramural barracks, is built of random-coursed grey limestone ashlar with a hammer-dressed face. Dressings around window, loophole, and door openings have a chisel-pointed finish, with generally chisel drafted margins and quoins. A bulging square cornice is also present. The windows in the southeast face of the officers’ quarters have been replaced with sashes within their original openings, retaining original lintels and relieving arches. The masonry facing toward the Haven is of high quality, with yellow granite dressings to all eleven casemate openings, each featuring flat voussoir arches. One aperture has been damaged by conversion to a gateway. The ashlar here is laid in large, regular courses with chisel-drafted margins throughout and exhibits strong rustication, and is topped with a half-round cornice.