Sea Level Fort - Isle Of Wight
History
Struggled to find much on this place but here’s what I’ve got.
The sea-level fort at Alum Bay, near The Needles, is part of the Needles Old Battery, a 19th-century coastal defense system built to protect the Solent from naval attacks. The fortifications include underground tunnels carved into the chalk cliffs, originally used for artillery positions. In the 20th century, these tunnels were repurposed as an observation post for the British Cold War rocket testing program at High-down Test Site.
The Explore
This has to be the up there for one of the most risky explores we’ve ever done. Having done are reaserch, the only way to access the cliff carved tunnels were at an extra low tide which we didn’t have time to wait for as our ferry left the next day. Low tide was at 3 and we arrived at 12 so we could analyse the amount of activity there would be on the beach before left. The tide went out fast and far and when it hit 3 we watched the life guard and the last cable car leave the beach. So we went, we trekked a kilometre over the rocky sea bed, hugging the cliff before reaching the grassy cliff leading to the entrance. The entrance was covered with a huge metal bar and concrete as-well as a gap just big enough to squeeze through. Once in, we were me with the tunnels all splitting off into different directions. Some led to the lift shaft, some to lookout rooms, machinery and cave in’s. But by far the highlight for me was the fresh water reservoir at the lowest point in the fort with crystal blue waters. Walking round we knew we had a time limit before we were trapped by the tide so we set a timer as we went round. I had read before the explore about the small slugs that lived within the tunnels, but having not seen any I kind of forgot about them, I soon met them when they all rained on my head as I was looking out of a small gap in the concrete wall, as you can imagine I spent the rest of the day checking for any ones I had missed. Here are some of the pictures I got:
History
Struggled to find much on this place but here’s what I’ve got.
The sea-level fort at Alum Bay, near The Needles, is part of the Needles Old Battery, a 19th-century coastal defense system built to protect the Solent from naval attacks. The fortifications include underground tunnels carved into the chalk cliffs, originally used for artillery positions. In the 20th century, these tunnels were repurposed as an observation post for the British Cold War rocket testing program at High-down Test Site.
The Explore
This has to be the up there for one of the most risky explores we’ve ever done. Having done are reaserch, the only way to access the cliff carved tunnels were at an extra low tide which we didn’t have time to wait for as our ferry left the next day. Low tide was at 3 and we arrived at 12 so we could analyse the amount of activity there would be on the beach before left. The tide went out fast and far and when it hit 3 we watched the life guard and the last cable car leave the beach. So we went, we trekked a kilometre over the rocky sea bed, hugging the cliff before reaching the grassy cliff leading to the entrance. The entrance was covered with a huge metal bar and concrete as-well as a gap just big enough to squeeze through. Once in, we were me with the tunnels all splitting off into different directions. Some led to the lift shaft, some to lookout rooms, machinery and cave in’s. But by far the highlight for me was the fresh water reservoir at the lowest point in the fort with crystal blue waters. Walking round we knew we had a time limit before we were trapped by the tide so we set a timer as we went round. I had read before the explore about the small slugs that lived within the tunnels, but having not seen any I kind of forgot about them, I soon met them when they all rained on my head as I was looking out of a small gap in the concrete wall, as you can imagine I spent the rest of the day checking for any ones I had missed. Here are some of the pictures I got:
The smell in here was damp but fresh, and everywhere was pristine. The only graffiti we found was from 1916 which I’ll show a picture of below.
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