Popton Fort

Popton Fort stands on the Angle peninsula beside Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. Built between 1859 and 1864 as part of a chain of Palmerston forts, it guarded the inner line of defence with eleven 9-inch rifled muzzle-loaded guns in casemates and ten more in open emplacements. The hexagonal ramparts taper to pentagonal bastions, and a wide clear slope fronts the ditch on the south side. Inside, the rear barracks could hold ten officers, five staff sergeants and 158 other ranks, with a canteen, wash rooms and a hospital. Two batteries, Moncrieff on the west and Open on the north, formed the gun positions. The fort is worth the journey for its military engineering and later industrial role. Completed at a cost of £76,000, it was abandoned early in the 20th century and reused during the Second World War. In 1957 BP bought the site to create an oil terminal, renovating the fort before it became part of Valero’s Angle Bay Refinery. Grade II* listed in 1996, it remains a private property yet still shows Palmerston’s defensive vision. Visitors find the massive ramparts and bastions rising from sloping ground, with the ditch cutting the southern approach. The two batteries and the barrack block’s layout show how the fort organised its garrison and guns. The scale of the casemates and open emplacements remains clear, while the surrounding refinery site frames the historic structure.