The Forts at Ferry Reach

Siobhan and I were due a successful adventure.  After all, the last 2 times out we almost hit a chicken with a scooter, and went wandering through swamps.  The plan wasn't any better laid out this time...but we had beautiful weather, a map, and a whole day to explore.

Stopped on the causeway looking back at Grotto Bay (for any potential travellers, there it is!)

We hopped on the scooter with the ultimate destination being a fort that I didn't know the name of but had seen from the causeway on the way to the airport.  The causeway, for the record, is a man made road that connects St. George and St. David's to the rest of the island.  In hurricanes, the causeway has to be closed, and in 2009 Hurricane Fabian damaged the causeway, resulting in 4 fatalities and part of the population being temporarily cut off to the main island and its services (like the hospital).  So this is the causeway, and visitors to the island always see calm blue waters as one of their final views of the island.

The causeway.  Linking most of Bermuda to the Airport, and St George's and St David's to the rest of the country

One of the last scenes you will see leaving Bermuda by air

If you do a double take on the picture above, you will see a little hill in the center with a little round stone building.  That is the fort I spotted while driving to the airport one day, and that was the goal of the day.  We headed on further down the road with the intent to find the fort at Ferry Reach.  Conveniently, the road that goes to Ferry Reach is called Ferry Road, so it was a no brainer getting out there.  What did boggle my mind was why, on such a beautiful day, was there absolutely no one else around?  It's quite a big area, and we had it all to ourselves.

The edge of Ferry Reach Park

I might note, that having not damaged any chickens or waded through any swamps, that Siobhan was very happy to see our adventure destination of the day.  She was almost skipping along the trail.

Finally a successful adventure!

Bermy may not be as hot as I like it yet....but it certainly is lush

And then we were at the fort.  Well, part of it.  I believe this was a munitions holding area.  The park itself looks like it goes a long way back, so that is another adventure for another day...we weren't ready to wander into a park so quickly after our last parks excursion.  But the munitions building is a short walk from the parking area, and the famous Maretello towers is just a short way from that.

The munitions holding building

Pretty nice view the artillery would have had

And a few paces away from that fort is the tower I could see from the Causeway

The Martello towers are two story round buildings that held 15-25 men.  The had thick walls that could resist cannon fire, and hold up some heavy artillery on the roof to fire back with.  The tower in Bermuda is surrounded by a 20 -30 foot drop, with what was a retractable bridge crossing the gap.  Bermuda has a lot of defensive forts, which it never has had to use.  I am beginning to suspect they created the need to just give the officer's a better view to enjoy their drinks with.  This particular tower with a view was built in about 1823.  The second pic shows that it can withstand cannon fodder...but vandals are a relentless scourge.  Actually, I kinda liked the look of it hence the 2nd picture.

The Martello tower

Villain...what kind of graffiti is that?

From the Martello tower we saw yet another building.  We walked over, and found what was called Burnt Fort, and yes, that is the official name to date.  It turns out that the site on Ferry Reach really is 3 separate forts from separate times.  The Martello tower is kind of special, as it is the only one on the island, and a pretty cool one when you look at the few others that are standing in the world.  There are a handful, but they are a less common fortification to see nowadays.

From Burnt Fort remains of the wall, which sports a great view of the island, we saw the third fort which is actually on another little island that now has a nice little foot bridge.

Little island?  Was a fortress once.

As many of the forts in Bermuda do...this one has walls that line up with cannon spots that can take out any attackers on its neighbouring fort, the Martello tower.  The Alexandra battery in St. David's is aligned to take out any ships that might try to head for the larger Fort St. Catherine.

A sunny spring day, view hasn't changed in 200 years

I have run out of time for today, so we shall stop the lesson on Forts...for now.  Have saved my favorite pictures of the day for tomorrow!