Fort Montagu

Fort Montagu is located on the seaside, just off East Bay Street, about a mile or so east of the city center.

Fort Montagu sits on the site of an earlier structure dating to c.1725 -1728. The present fort was built between 1741-42 by Peter Henry Bruce, a military engineer, during the governorship of John Tinker (1735-58). It was built of locally cut limestone and named after the Duke of Montagu. A sea battery, north-east of the fort was called Bladden’s Battery for John Bladden, son of Governor John Tinker. The fort and Bladden’s Battery were finished in July 1742 and mounted with eight 18-pounder, three 9 and six 6 –pounder cannon. Bladden’s Battery was destroyed by a hurricane in the 1800s. Originally, the fort contained a rainwater cistern, barracks for an officer and soldiers, a guardroom and powder magazine.