Clifford's Fort

Clifford’s Fort stands on the Fish Quay in North Shields, a low stone gun battery built in 1672 to guard the mouth of the Tyne. It replaced an earlier gabion fort destroyed in 1644 and was named for Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. The engineer Martin Beckman designed the raised platform with a three-storey redoubt and thirty cannons. For over a century it worked alongside Tynemouth Castle, though the castle itself had fallen into ruin. Trinity House’s 1539 lighthouse on the site was damaged by gunfire, causing years of dispute. The fort saw rebuilding in the 18th century, when its seaward walls were faced with sandstone ashlar. By 1720 the redoubt became a barracks for Invalids, veterans who helped man the guns. A new Governor’s House in 1726 blocked the Low Light, which had to be rebuilt the next year. By 1748 the fort held thirty-six 18-pounder guns and a large powder store. In the 19th century the fort was made obsolete by new piers, then turned into a submarine mining depot in 1888. Today the restored fort shows its 18th-century sandstone walls and reinstated moat. The Old Low Light now houses a museum about the site’s history. Modern buildings have been removed to reveal the fort’s shape, and the moat has been brought back. The Master Gunner’s house, lost in 1973, once stood at the south-west corner. The fort sits beside the working Fish Quay, linking past defences with today’s harbour life.