Fort Burgoyne Western Redoubt

Fort Burgoyne, originally known as Castle Hill Fort, was built in the 1860s as one of the Palmerston forts around Dover in southeast England. It was built to a polygonal system with detached eastern and western redoubts, to guard the high ground northeast of the strategic port of Dover, just north of Dover Castle. The fort is named after the 19th century Field Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne, Inspector-General of Fortifications and son of the John Burgoyne who fought in the American Revolutionary War. After the First World War Fort Burgoyne was used as a military depot or store for Connaught Barracks. Until recently the central part of the fort was still owned by the Ministry of Defence, forming part of the Connaught Barracks site, which is now being redeveloped for housing. In 2014, Fort Burgoyne and a total of 42 Hectares of land was acquired by the Land Trust. Since acquiring the site the Trust has spent over £2.5 million on priority works (informed by a Coastal Revival Fund grant aided condition survey) to stabilise the site together with transforming the West Wing Battery of the site from condition of derelict buildings and structures lost in woodland to an informal recreation space for the community opened in 2023. As part of the Trust's long term aspiration to see the Fort become a vibrant business and community space in 2023 a project was completed providing opportunities for businesses to become the first tenants on site.