| Summary : Harry's Walls comprise an unfinished artillery castle dating to 1551, during the reign of King Edward VI (1547-53). The remains are situated on the summit of Mount Flagon, overlooking St Mary's Pool. It was begun as part of a major phase of fortification on the Isles of Scilly, undertaken between 1547 and 1554, to counter threats from the French. It seems to have been an early attempt to mount heavy guns to protect the approaches to Hugh Town, where rising sea levels had opened up a large, sheltered harbour. This artillery castle would have been the first fortification in the country to have been provided entirely with angled bastions and straight orillions, a design at the forefront of military engineering. This was first developed in Italy during the late 15th century and preceded those at Carisbrooke Castle and at Berwick-on-Tweed. However, it was never completed because the threat passed and finance was withdrawn. (The headland now known as The Garrison was thought to offer a better location, and was chosen as the site of the islands' principal fortress, Star Castle, in the 1590s.) A surviving plan of the fort shows that it was originally designed to be square, with large, pointed bastions at each corner, and with internal buildings ranging along all four sides of the curtain wall; a mill and brewhouse were to be built by the freshwater pond below the hill. Only the two south-westerly bastions were completed, together with the connecting stretch of curtain wall 27 metres long. The structure has been heavily robbed of its dressed stone. The acutely angled, or arrow-headed, bastions were designed to offer maximum coverage of the walls between them, and to present the narrowest possible front to enemy fire. A trench marks the planned line of the north-west curtain wall and internal earthworks mark other site preparations. The site is in the care of English Heritage. |
More information : (SV 90951089) Harry's Walls (Battery) (NR) (1)
An unfinished artillery castle on the summit of Mount Flagon. It was begun in 1551 but no mention is made of it after 1554. It was part of the wider fortifications of the island carried out between 1547 and 1554. After its abandonment the site was used as a rubbish dump and quantities of 17th and 18th century pottery was found when the site was cleared for display. (2-5)
Listed building. (6)
Aerial photographs. (7)
'Harry's Walls' (name confirmed) stands on Mount Flagon overlooking St Mary's Pool and Hugh Town.
The remains consist of two bastions and a curtain wall connecting them, this south west side being the only side of the square to be completed. A rock-cut ditch indicates the position of the projected north west side. The curtain and bastion wall-faces have been largely robbed of their dressed granite blocks. The curtain wall is 27.0m long, 6.6m wide and 1.7m high on the outer side. A drain cutting right through it about mid-way along its length gives an indication of where inner ground-level would have been had the courtyard been completed. the faces of the bastions average 21.0m in length, with a maximum height of 2.3m. The narrow passage-way leading from the South bastion to the courtyard is well preserved, but the one from the West bastion has been severely damaged and its masonry mixed with the tumbled remains of the flankers or orillons which connected the bastion faces to the ends of the curtain wall.
In DOE Guardianship.
Surveyed at 1:2500 on PFD. (8)
An English Heritage property. (9)
Scheduled. (10)
Harry's Walls comprise of an unfinished artillery castle dating to the mid-16th century, situated on the summit of Mount Flagon, overlooking St Mary's Pool. It was begun in 1551 as part of a major phase of fortification on the Isles of Scilly, undertaken between 1547 and 1554, to counter threats from the French. By 1554, some of the garrison was transferred to Tresco, reflecting a shift in the focus of fortification. This artillery castle would have been the first fortification in the country to have been provided entirely with angled bastions and straight orillions, a design at the forefront of military engineering. However it was never completed since the site was not entirely suitable. The crown of Mount Flagon was too small to accommodate a castle of this size and the location was strategically poor, unable to fully cover the approaches to the anchorage.
On the south west side of the monument is a massive stone curtain wall terminating in a pointed bastion at each end, facing west and south. On the north west side is an unfinished rock-cut ditch. The curtain wall is faced on each side by granite blocks and is infilled with granite rubble. The bastion walls, either side of the curtain wall, are defined by massive acutely angled walls pointing directing away from the corner of the castle. They average 21 metres long and 5 metres wide and rise up to 2.3 metres high externally. The angled outer walls of each bastion are joined to the ends of the curtain wall by a short linking wall. These were designed to mount guns that would provide flanking fire along the outside of the curtain walls. Within each bastion is a small sub-triangular internal area linked to the castle interior by a narrow entry passage through the walls. Work on the castle was abandoned before the curtain walls facing north west, north east and south east, or the north and east bastions were constructed. (11)
A brief history and description. Harry's Walls comprise an unfinished artillery castle dating to 1551, during the reign of King Edward VI (1547-53). It seems to have been an early attempt to mount heavy guns to protect the approaches to Hugh Town, where rising sea levels had opened up a large, sheltered harbour. This artillery castle would have been a design at the forefront of military engineering. This was first developed in Italy during the late 15th century and preceded those at Carisbrooke Castle and at Berwick-on-Tweed. The headland now known as The Garrison offered a better location, and was eventually chosen as the site of the islands' principal fortress, Star Castle, in the 1590s. The site was too small to accommodate a castle of this size and the location was strategically poor, unable to fully cover the approaches to the anchorage. A surviving plan of the fort shows that it was originally designed to be square, with large, pointed bastions at each corner, and with internal buildings ranging along all four sides of the curtain wall; a mill and brewhouse were to be built by the freshwater pond below the hill. Only the two south-westerly bastions were completed, together with the connecting stretch of curtain wall 27 metres long. The structure has been heavily robbed of its dressed stone. The acutely angled, or arrow-headed, bastions were designed to offer maximum coverage of the walls between them, and to present the narrowest possible front to enemy fire. A trench marks the planned line of the north-west curtain wall. (12)
A discussion of the site is presented in a book on the defences of Scilly. (13)
(Original entries for Authorities 2-7 have been deleted and replaced by an unknown recorder.) Slight earthworks in the interior show that construction of Harry's Walls proceeded further, though perhaps not much further, than the masonry remains suggest. A right-angled depression may be a wall footing for one of the proposed internal buildings and other earthworks possibly represent attempts to level the site. Contrary to previous authorities, the fort was not left unfinished because it was badly sited but because the immediate threat had passed and finance was withdrawn (see Authority 13, esp pp 10-13). Surveyed at 1:500. (14)
|