Western Heights Today

Western Heights comprises some 5 miles of dry ditches, 3 main works and numerous gun batteries and barracks and examples of some of the finest military architecture in the country. These span some 170 years, encompassing the French revolutionary wars through to world war two yet they lie sunken into the hill almost unseen opposite Dover’s famous medieval castle.

For the greater part Western Heights is derelict unfortunately. As you will discover on your journey into the forgotten fortress, as the Heights has often been referred to as, many parts were demolished during post-war ‘eye-sore clearance’ projects, and some elegant brickwork has been pulled down to make way for industrial buildings. The vast Citadel is now a youth offender institute (or borstal) and is obviously out of bounds although this does mean that it is in theory kept in good order, most of its ditches and walls being kept clear of undergrowth. Unfortunately most of the other ditches with the exception of those of the Drop Redoubt are completely overgrown and consequently vegetation is tugging away at the mortar thus causing the historic fabric of the escarp and counterscarp walls to crumble.

During the 1960's the then Dover Corporation  bought up around 126 acres of  MOD land around the Heights and subsequently and gradually destroyed  many parts of the Heights  including the Garrison Church, Archcliffe Gate, Grand Shaft Barracks, South Front Barracks and the Military Hospital.   They filled in   much of the Western Outworks ditch with rubble, cut a new road through the North Lines adjacent to the Drop Redoubt, and would you believe, proposed filling the system of dry ditches with household refuse,  all with the intention of developing the area for light industrial use and new housing. 

 We are very fortunate however to have English Heritage on our side. Their conservation project on the Drop Redoubt was started in 1994  and although it has been a long 5 years the outer walls of the Redoubt are now looking new again. This has been done in the face of extensive vandalism and very high cost.

The aim of this internet site is to put Western Heights defences ‘on the map’ just like its cousin Dover Castle, and to bring to the public eye the improvements being carried out by English Heritage and the work that still needs to be done. Western Heights is an important part of our military heritage and deserves to be saved.

We’ll be going on a routemarch into specific areas of the Heights, showing you the good bits and bad bits, the history, demolition and conservation of each part of the Heights. This is done using maps, plans, newspaper articles, books, old postcards and other sources and lots and lots of photographs !

Discover Dover's Forgotten Fortress !