Woodlands Fort

Woodland Fort stands on a quiet rise above the northern edge of Plymouth, a trapezoidal relic of the 1860s built to guard Devonport Dockyard from French warships. Designed by Captain Edmund Frederick Du Cane and raised by George Baker and Company, it formed part of Lord Palmerston’s ring of land defences around the city. The fort’s advanced Victorian layout includes a parade ground, soldiers’ barracks, ruined cookhouse, and magazines for storing powder. A caponier and a counterscarp gallery once allowed riflemen to sweep the ditches with flanking fire. The gatehouse still shows traces of its original drawbridge mechanism. The fort’s military life ended in 1920 and it later gained Grade II listing, though it now appears on Historic England’s Buildings at Risk Register. Unlike nearby forts, Woodland Fort remains largely derelict, its barracks kept in use only by a small volunteer group. Vandals and weather have damaged other parts, and both the caponier and gallery are sealed off. When Crownhill Road was widened, the southern ditch was filled, giving walkers easy access though the site itself is closed. Visitors can walk the grassy ramparts and see the gatehouse from outside, while the barracks block shows signs of recent care. The ruined cookhouse and magazines lie behind locked fences, their interiors hidden from view. From the rise the fort overlooks suburban gardens and distant hills, a quiet witness to the age of steam and ironclads.