The fearsome fortifications of Fort George are magnificent in structure and ferocious in their deadly design. They stand today as a must see monument to 18th Century military engineering.
Following the Battle of Culloden , the Hanoverian government were determined to cut down and support for Stuart claims to the throne. They built a succession of forts dissecting Scotland along the Great Glen from Fort William near Ben Nevis to Fort Augustus near Loch Ness and the mightiest of all Fort George in the Moray Firth close the Highlands .
Work on Fort George commenced in 1748 and it’s designer William Skinner employed the very latest theories in military strategy and technology to its engineering. It was completed twenty one years later and it cost £200,000, which was more than the Scottish national GDP at the time. With its overlapping fields of fire impregnable 30 feet thick walls, huge artillery and land facing defensive ravalin it presented a formidable obstacle for any land force. However when it was completed the Highlands were already pacified through 21 years of the disintegration of the clan system, rendering it virtually obsolete. At least until the Napoleonic wars.
Fort George
During the French Invasion Threat of 1859 Fort George’s defences were upgraded and the seaward defences became paramount to the Fort as it was remodelled to be a powerful coastal defence battery and was rearmed with the latest military hardware. But the French never came either.
Throughout its history the Barrack square has been pounded only by feet, as it has been the training ground for a succession of British Regiments from 1860 right up to 1960, ironically mostly those from the Highland. It is still an active barracks today, the picturesque Georgian buildings looking strangely at odds with the stark defences.
Inside Fort George are a range of audiovisual displays telling its history, portraying the often harsh and Spartan life of those garrisoned here and outlining its awesome force that you can just imagine being dispatched to some poor invader as you look out from the battlements.
