Brimstone Hill Fortress, St Kitts, West Indies. Part one: history

Abstract

This paper examines the building and development of the British fortifications on Brimstone Hill, St Kitts. The Hill was first fortified by the English when a small gun battery was built in 1690. Then, in the early 18th century an extensive Refuge Fortress was built. This was besieged and taken by the French in 1782, but was returned to the British by treaty in 1783. Between the later 1780s and the Napoleonic Wars, the defences on Brimstone Hill were reconstructed to become one of the largest and most powerful British fortresses in the Caribbean. Included was a citadel which is one of the earliest surviving examples of polygonal fortification from the British service. After abandonment in 1853 to become overgrown with brush, the fortress was gradually cleared in the 20th century to emerge as an entire fortress of the 18th-century and Napoleonic Wars, unaltered by later development, forming the remains of a complete military community. Such is the historical importance of the site that it is being submitted for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List.Part two will describe and discuss the main features of the fortress, and will appear in the next volume of the journal, along with the appendices and acknowledgements.