What was Bermuda’s Coastal Defence System?

For more than 300 years, Britain protected Bermuda with one of the world’s most extensive coastal defence systems. Around 90 forts, batteries and military installations guarded the island’s reefs, harbours and shipping channels, creating overlapping fields of fire that made a naval attack extremely difficult. The system evolved from small 17th-century stone forts into powerful Victorian fortifications and helped earn Bermuda the nickname “The Gibraltar of the West.” Many of these historic sites, including Fort St. Catherine, Gates Fort and The Keep at the Royal Naval Dockyard, can still be explored today.

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