Fort Charles

A crumbling seventeenth-century fort on the point south of town, free, open and usually empty.

Fort Charles sits on the low point of land about a kilometre south of Charlestown, guarding the anchorage that ships still use. The site has been fortified since the 1670s and the surviving walls, magazine and gun platforms are mostly eighteenth century, laid out in a rough horseshoe open to the sea. It was here that the island's British administration formally surrendered to the French in 1782. There is no gate, no fee, no signage and usually nobody else, and the walls are crumbling enough that you should watch your footing. The reward is the view back along the coast to the town and your ship at anchor.

Getting there from the port