The French are coming!

This is Fishguard Fort, built here on a spit of land overlooking the harbour in 1781. Two years before, the town had been attacked by The Black Prince, a privateer sailing under a French flag, commanded by an American and crewed by Irish desperadoes who had broken out of Dublin jail. They demanded 2000 guineas or the vicar as hostage and when the townsfolk would not oblige they started to bombard the town with cannon balls.

As luck would have it, another vessel in the harbour was able to return fire with surprising accuracy and the privateer withdrew but after this lucky escape there were calls for better defences for what at the time was a lucrative fishing and trading port. The Government grudgingly agreed to supply 8 guns on the condition that the townspeople built the structure of the battery and supplied the ammunition. Three invalid artillerymen were sent to man the fort - soldiers who were no longer fit for regular duties.

The fort aimed to present a show of force to ships approaching by sea but in reality was very limited in what it could achieve. Nonetheless, in February 1797, a servant girl* at the farm which is now my home, sent to fetch the cows in from the coastal pastures, spotted a fleet of French ships heading towards Fishguard. She raised the alarm and the guns were fired in their general direction. The ships changed course and anchored further to the west. (More about this incident, the last invasion on British soil, can be found on this previous blip.) In fact there was a chronic shortage of ammunition at the fort and what had been fired were simply blanks!

Despite the fort's success at scaring off the French fleet on that occasion, concerns were subsequently raised about the possibility of the guns falling into the hands of the Enemy in a fort so undermanned and vulnerable. After the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 Fishguard fort fell into disuse and was abandoned. Much of the structure has long since gone and only one stone building and some of the walls still stand. The four cannon that point out to sea are not the originals but the site remains impressive with views up the coast to the east, north across the bay and south into the old harbour. The only French likely to be heard today would be spoken by the occasional tourist.

*We have a photograph of her, taken when she was over 100 years old.