Archcliffe Fort

Archcliffe Fort stands on the shore below the Dover Western Heights, overlooking Shakespeare Beach and the entrance to Dover’s port. A watchtower was built here in 1370, later replaced by Henry VIII’s stone fort by 1539. The fort was repaired in 1588 when the Spanish Armada threatened invasion. James VI and I and Charles I strengthened it in the 17th century. Charles II garrisoned the fort after the Restoration to guard against attack. The fort once bristled with cannon: a demi-culverin, brass sakers and iron fowlers kept enemy ships at bay. In 1639 it was rebuilt at a cost of £4,300 and encircled by a deep ditch and high rampart. By 1757 barracks and guard houses stood inside, though space was tight for soldiers. The Napoleonic Wars brought new brick defences, including a barbican added between 1814 and 1815. Today two ramparts and two corner bastions survive, with modern buildings inside. The Emmaus Community uses the site to house formerly homeless people and run a furniture workshop. The fort’s scheduled status protects its historic fabric, though parts were lost to road and railway works. Excavations have uncovered remains of earlier structures, including a possible 19th-century sally port.