Brimstone Hill Fortress

Today we went to Brimstone Hill Fortress with some Aussies who are also staying here at the Gateway. We caught a taxi to town and did a bit of shopping while they checked their mail at an Internet café. For the trip to Brimstone we caught a local minibus taxi like we have back home, complete with the stupidly large speakers and demented driver! We raced along the coast road at breakneck speed dodging goats, dogs, cars and even tractors. When we were dropped off we realised that Brimstone hill was a rather large hill, and we were at the bottom! We started up the hill with the positive words from one of our Aussie companions that he had read in his travel guides that it was a 30 mins walk up the hill, thankfully we did not have to find out if this was true because 2 mins up the hill a passing car offered us a lift, an American lady on her way to have a look at the fort.

Brimstone Fortress was built in the late 1600’s and is a very impressive display of period military design and architecture, a truly imposing military complex. The hill was first used by the English in 1690 when they dragged cannons up the hill to fire down on the French who had just recently overrun the English compound of Fort Charles, their effort was successful and they realised the potential that Brimstone hill had for more permanent fortification. Brimstone Fortress was designed by the best British Amy engineers and built with slave labour from Africa. Spread over 30 acres and multiple levels the fortress is huge, surrounded by triangular bastions, bristling with canons, magazine stores, Ordinance store, Engineers quarters, parade ground, soldiers barracks, quarters for warrant officers, Artillery officers and Infantry officers, a drainage system that joined all the gutters to a reservoir in case if a siege and even a cemetery. To top it off at the highest point there is an armoured citadel of impressive dimensions, complete with a drawbridge for a last stand should the rest of the fortress fall! Needless to say Brimstone Fortress was never taken! This place makes the Castle of Good Hope look tiny!

After exploring for some time we started to walk back down the hill, we were luckily enough to spot a short cut about ¼ of the way down which lead to past the lime kiln (used for making the cement during construction) and back on to the road. We waited for a bit before a minibus taxi arrived to take us back to town at the maximum warp speed that seems to be the norm!

We will post some pice tomorrow.
Cheers!