Martello towers are small defensive forts

Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...

 built in several countries of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 onwards.

They stand up to 40 feet (12m) high (with two floors) and typically had a garrison of one officer and 15–25 men. Their round structure and thick walls of solid masonry made them resistant to cannon fire, while their height made them an ideal platform for a single heavy artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 piece, mounted on the flat roof and able to traverse a 360° arc. A few towers had moats for extra defence.

The Martello towers were used during the first half of the 19th century, but became obsolete with the introduction of powerful rifled artillery. Many have survived to the present day, often preserved as historic monuments.

Origins

Martello towers were inspired by a round fortress, part of a larger Genovese

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 defence system, at Mortella

Torra di Mortella

The Torra di Mortella is a Genoese tower in Corsica, located on Mortella Point in the commune of Saint-Florent, Haute-Corse. It was a progenitor of the numerous Martello towers the British built in the 19th Century throughout their empire....

 (Myrtle) Point in Corsica

Corsica

Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

 (see picture here ). The designer was Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino (el Fratin), and the tower was completed in 1565.

Since the 15th century, the Corsicans had built similar towers at strategic points around the island to protect coastal villages and shipping from North African pirates. The towers stood one or two storeys high and measured 12–15 m (36–45 ft) in diameter, with a single doorway 5 m off the ground that one could access only via a ladder which the occupants could remove.

Local villagers paid for the towers and watchmen, known as torregiani, who would signal the approach of unexpected ships by lighting a beacon fire on the tower's roof. The fire would alert the local defence forces to the threat. Although the pirate threat subsequently dwindled, the Genovese built a newer generation of circular towers that warded off later foreign invasions.

On 7 February 1794, two British warships, HMS Fortitude

HMS Fortitude (1780)

HMS Fortitude was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by John Randall & Co. and launched on 23 March 1780 at Rotherhithe....

 (74 guns) and HMS Juno

HMS Juno (1780)

HMS Juno was a Royal Navy 32-gun Amazon-class fifth rate. This frigate served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.-Construction and commissioning:...

 (32 guns), unsuccessfully attacked the tower at Mortella Point; the tower eventually fell to land-based forces under Sir John Moore

John Moore (British soldier)

Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, KB was a British soldier and General. He is best known for his military training reforms and for his death at the Battle of Corunna, in which his force was defeated but gained a tactical advantage over a French army under Marshal Soult during the Peninsular...

 after two days of heavy fighting. What helped the British was that the tower's two eighteen pounders fired sea-ward, while only the one six pounder could fire land-ward.

Vice-Admiral Lord Hood

Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood

Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood was a British Admiral known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars...

 reported:
Late in the previous year, the tower's French defenders had abandoned it after HMS Lowestoffe

HMS Lowestoffe (1761)

HMS Lowestoffe was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Built during the latter part of the Seven Years' War, she went on to see action in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War, and served often in the Caribbean...

 (32 guns) had fired two broadsides at it. The British removed the guns to arm a small vessel; consequently, the French were easily able to dislodge the garrison of Corsican patriots that had replaced them. Still, the British were impressed by the effectiveness of the tower when properly supplied and defended, and copied the design. But, they got the name wrong, misspelling "Mortella" as "Martello" (which means "hammer" in Italian). When the British withdrew from Corsica in 1803, with great difficulty they blew up the tower, leaving it in an unusable state.

Design and construction

The interior of a classic British Martello tower consisted of three storeys (sometimes with an additional basement). The ground floor served as the magazine

Magazine (artillery)

Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...

 and storerooms, where ammunition, stores and provisions were kept. The garrison

Garrison

Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

 of 24 men and one officer lived in a casemate

Casemate

A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...

 on the first floor, which was divided into several rooms and had fireplaces built into the walls for cooking and heating.

The officer and men lived in separate rooms of almost equal size. The roof or terreplein was surmounted with one or two cannon on a central pivot that enabled the guns to rotate up to 360 degrees. A well or cistern within the fort supplied the garrison with water. An internal drainage system linked to the roof enabled rainwater to refill the cistern.

Martello towers around the world

During the first half of the 19th century, the British government embarked on a large-scale programme of building Martello towers to guard the British and Irish coastlines. Around 140 were built, mostly along the south coast of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Governments in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Minorca

Minorca

Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 also constructed towers. The construction of Martello towers abroad continued until as late as the 1870s but was discontinued after it became clear that they could not withstand the new generation of rifled artillery weapons.

The French built similar towers along their own coastline that they used as platforms for communication by optical telegraphs (using the Chappe Telegraph). The United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 government also built a number of Martello towers along the east coast of the US that copied the British design with some modifications.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Great Britain and Ireland were united as a single political entity, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

, from 1801 to 1922, spanning the time during which the Martello towers were erected (the initial scheme started under the previous entities of the Kingdom of Great Britain

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

 and Kingdom of Ireland

Kingdom of Ireland

The Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...

). Consequently the Martello towers of Great Britain and Ireland can be considered to have been part of a single defensive system, designed to protect the coastlines of the two main islands of the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

 as a whole.

This is most clearly visible on the south and east coasts of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and the east coast of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, where chains of Martello towers were built. Elsewhere in the world, individual Martello towers were erected to provide point defence of strategic locations.

England

Between 1804 and 1812 the British authorities built a chain of towers based on the original Mortella tower to defend the south and east coast of England

British anti-invasion preparations of 1803–1805

British anti-invasion preparations of 1803–1805 were the military and civilian responses in the United Kingdom to Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom. They included mobilisation of the population on a scale not previously attempted in Britain, with a combined military force of over...

, Ireland, Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

 and Guernsey

Guernsey

Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...

 to guard against possible invasion from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, then under the rule of the Emperor Napoleon

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

. A total of 103 Martello towers were built in England, set at regular intervals along the coast from Seaford

Seaford, East Sussex

Seaford is a coastal town in the county of East Sussex, on the south coast of England. Lying east of Newhaven and Brighton and west of Eastbourne, it is the largest town in Lewes district, with a population of about 23,000....

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, to Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Located on the River Alde, the town is notable for its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts where freshly caught fish are sold daily, and the Aldeburgh Yacht Club...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

. Most were constructed under the direction of General William Twiss

William Twiss

General William Twiss, , was a British Army Royal Engineer, responsible for the design of many military defenses.Probably born in Kent in 1744 or 1755, Twiss worked in the ordnance office at the Tower of London from 1760, before becoming overseer of works at Gibraltar. Receiving a commission in...

 (1745–1827) and a Captain Ford.

Included in the scheme were three much larger circular forts or redoubt

Redoubt

A redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line and can be a permanent structure or a...

s that were constructed at Harwich

Harwich Redoubt

Harwich Redoubt is a circular fort built in 1808 to defend the port of Harwich, Essex from Napoleonic invasion. The Harwich Society opens it to the public.- Construction :...

, Dymchurch

Dymchurch Redoubt

Dymchurch Grand Redoubt is a fortification on the coast of Kent in England, built during the Napoleonic War as part of a large defensive scheme to protect the country from an expected French invasion.-Description:...

 and Eastbourne

Eastbourne Redoubt

Eastbourne Redoubt is a fort on what is now Royal Parade, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England.-History:The Redoubt was built between 1804 and 1810 to support the associated Martello towers in defending against the threat of an invasion by Napoleon. It has defended the Eastbourne coast for nearly 200...

; they acted as supply depots for the smaller towers as well as being powerful fortifications in their own right.

The effectiveness of Britain's Martello towers was never actually tested in combat against a Napoleonic invasion fleet. They were, however, effective in hindering smuggling. After the threat had passed, the Martello towers in England met a variety of fates. The Coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard is the service of the government of the United Kingdom concerned with co-ordinating air-sea rescue.HM Coastguard is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of all civilian maritime Search and Rescue within the UK...

 took over many to aid in the fight against smuggling.

Fifteen towers were demolished to enable the re-use of their masonry. The sea washed thirty away and the military destroyed four in experiments to test the effectiveness of the new rifled artillery. During the Second World War, some Martello towers returned to military service as observation platforms and firing platforms for anti-aircraft artillery.

Forty-seven Martello towers have survived in England, a few of which have been restored and transformed into museums (e.g., the tower at St Osyth), visitor centres, and galleries (such as Jaywick Martello Tower

Jaywick Martello Tower

Jaywick Martello Tower is a renovated Martello tower that functions as an art, heritage and community venue. Situated in Jaywick, just south of Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, the Tower, was built in 1809. It was originally one of twenty-nine Martello towers situated on the east coast of England...

). Some are privately owned or are private residences; the remainder are derelict. A survey of the East Coast towers in 2007 found of the 17 remaining, most were in a reasonable condition.

Scotland

Three Martello towers were built in Scotland, two at Hackness and Crockness near Longhope

Longhope, Orkney

Longhope is a coastal settlement on the island of South Walls which is one of the Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland. South Walls is linked to Hoy by causeway; Longhope is the largest settlement on the two islands....

 in the Orkney Islands

Orkney Islands

Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...

. They were constructed between 1813 and 1815 to guard against the threat of French and American raiders attacking convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

s assembling offshore. Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...

 now operates the Hackness tower as a museum.

A third Scottish tower was built on offshore rocks facing the Firth of Forth

Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...

 in 1807-09 to defend Leith

Leith

-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....

 Harbour. Known locally as the Tally Too'er, it now lies land-locked within the eastern breakwater.

Ireland

The British built about fifty Martello towers around the Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 coastline, especially along the east coast, from Millmount

Millmount Fort

Millmount Fort, is a large 19th century Martello tower located in Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland. Built in 1808, it is one of a series of Martello towers erected by the British in expectation of a possible invasion of Ireland by Napoleon. Built upon a huge mound, it is visible from most parts...

 (Drogheda), to Bray

Bray

Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...

, around Dublin Bay

Dublin Bay

Dublin Bay is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north-south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of Dublin; stretching from Howth Head in the north to Dalkey Point in the south...

 but also around Cork Harbour

Cork Harbour

Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...

 on the south coast. On the east coast, concentrated mainly around Dublin Bay, the towers were in line of sight of each other, providing the ability to communicate with one another, or warn of any incoming attacks.

Possibly the most famous is the Martello tower in Sandycove

Sandycove

Sandycove is an area of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, but north of Dalkey.Sandycove is well-known for its gentlemen's bathing place, the Forty Foot, which in the past afforded a quiet swimming haven for males only...

, near Dún Laoghaire

Dún Laoghaire

Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...

, in which James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

 lived for a few days. Joyce shared the tower with Oliver St. John Gogarty

Oliver St. John Gogarty

Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty was an Irish poet, author, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and well-known conversationalist, who served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses....

, then a medical student but later to become famous in Irish history as a surgeon, politician and writer. In Ulysses

Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...

, the fictional character Stephen Dedalus

Stephen Dedalus

Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographical novel of artistic existence A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and an important character in Joyce's Ulysses...

 lives in the tower with a medical student, Malachi "Buck" Mulligan, whom Joyce based on Gogarty. The James Joyce Tower, as the tower is now known, houses a museum dedicated to Joyce.

A number of other Martello towers are extant nearby at Bullock Harbour, Dalkey Island

Dalkey Island

Dalkey Island is an uninhabited island about 16 km south of Dublin, near the village of Dalkey, 3 km south of Dún Laoghaire harbour...

, Williamstown Seapoint

Seapoint

Seapoint is a small seafront area between Blackrock and Monkstown in Dublin in the Dún Laoghaire local authority area. It is best known for its beach and bathing areas, beside a Martello Tower on the Dublin Bay seashore....

 and Sandymount

Sandymount

Sandymount is a coastal seaside suburb in Dublin 4 on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It is in the Dublin South East Dáil constituency and the East Pembroke Ward. It was once part of Pembroke Township, which took its name from the fact that this area was part of the estate of the Earl of...

 and Martello towers feature in many literary works set in Dublin. During the 1980s, Bono

Bono

Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...

 owned the Martello tower in Bray

Bray

Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...

, County Wicklow

County Wicklow

County Wicklow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wicklow, which derives from the Old Norse name Víkingalág or Wykynlo. Wicklow County Council is the local authority for the county...

.
Martello Tower No.7, on Tara Hill, Killiney Bay, is unique, as is its location as an enfilading tower. The Tower is privately owned and has been fully restored, to include a proofed, working King George 3rd Blomefield 18-pounder cannon mounted on a traversing carriage on the crown of the Tower. There is a three-gun battery below the tower, with a glacis. There is also a coach house, artillery store, tool shed, and gunner's cottage, with resident gunner and gunpowder store. The battery, while restored, remains to be armed and the coach house and artillery store still require some restoration.

On the north side of the city, one can find Martello towers in Portmarnock

Portmarnock

Portmarnock is a small suburban village to the north of Dublin, Ireland. It is in the administrative county of Fingal.-Location:Portmarnock lies on the coast and, owing to its proximity to Dublin city, is a form of dormitory village north-northeast of the city centre...

, Howth

Howth

Howth is an area in Fingal County near Dublin city in Ireland. Originally just a small fishing village, Howth with its surrounding rural district is now a busy suburb of Dublin, with a mix of dense residential development and wild hillside, all on the peninsula of Howth Head. The only...

, Sutton

Sutton, Dublin

Sutton is a residential suburb of Dublin's Northside, Ireland, at the base of Howth Head, the peninsula which forms the northern edge of Dublin Bay.-Location and geography:...

, Donabate, Malahide

Malahide

Malahide is a coastal suburban town, near Dublin city, located in the administrative county of Fingal, within the traditional County Dublin, Ireland. It has a village-like centre and extensive residential areas to the south, west and northwest.-Name:...

 (Hicks tower) and on Ireland's Eye

Ireland's Eye

Ireland's Eye is a small uninhabited island off the coast of County Dublin, Ireland, situated directly north of Howth Harbour. The island is easily reached by regular tourist boats...

 and Lambay Island

Lambay Island

Lambay lies off the coast of Fingal / north County Dublin, Ireland in the Irish Sea. It is located north of Ireland's Eye at and is the easternmost point of the Republic of Ireland...

.

There are seven Martello towers in the vicinity of Cork Harbour. During the 19th century Fenian uprising

Fenian Rising

The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood .After the suppression of the Irish People newspaper, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists had continued to smoulder, and during the later part of 1866 IRB leader James...

, the famous Captain Mackey

William Mackey Lomasney

William Mackey Lomasney was a member of the Fenian Brotherhood and the Clan na Gael who, during the Fenian dynamite campaign organized by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, was killed in a failed attempt to dynamite London Bridge....

 briefly captured and held the Monning Martello tower near Fota Island

Fota Island

Fota Island is a small island in Cork Harbour, Ireland, just north of the larger island of Great Island. The name "Fota" is derived from the Irish "Fód te" meaning warm soil...

 in Cork Harbour

Cork Harbour

Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...

; this tower is believed to have been the only Martello tower ever captured, other than the original. The other Cork Harbour towers are at Ringaskiddy

Ringaskiddy

Ringaskiddy is a village south of Cork city, in County Cork, Ireland. Located across Cork harbour south from Cóbh, and connected to Cork city by the N28 road the village is now a major ferry port Port of Cork with passenger ferry services to France & the United Kingdom.Ringaskiddy has seen huge...

, Haulbowline Island (now part of the Irish Naval Service HQ) and at Belvelly

Belvelly

Belvelly is a small village on the northern end of the Great Island of Cork Harbour, about four miles north of the town of Cobh, County Cork, Ireland....

 and Rossleague on the Great Island

Great Island

Great Island is the name of an island in Cork Harbour, just outside Cork city, at the mouth of the River Lee. The town of Cóbh is situated on the island, which is connected by bridge to Fota Island to the north, which in turn is connected by a causeway to the mainland...

 (near Cobh

Cobh

Cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour. Facing the town are Spike Island and Haulbowline Island...

). There are also Martello towers at Little Island

Little Island, Cork

Little Island is mainly an industrial area to the east of Cork City, Ireland. It is no longer an island, since the northern channel separating it from the mainland has filled over. To the east and south is Cork Harbour; across a channel to the west is Fota Island.-Development:Many of Cork's...

 and Rostellan

Rostellan

Rostellan is a townland in the civil parish of the same name in County Cork, Ireland.-References:*...

, though these are no longer intact.

The British built two Martello towers on the Hook Peninsula to protect the fort near Duncannon

Duncannon

Duncannon is a village in southwest County Wexford, Ireland. Bordered to the west by Waterford harbour and sitting on a rocky promontory jutting into the channel is the strategically prominent Duncannon Fort which dominates the village.Primarily a fishing village, Duncannon also relies heavily on...

, Co. Wexford and the entrance to Waterford

Waterford

Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...

 Harbour. There is a third tower on the headland at Baginbun Bay in Co. Wexford.

One of the most interesting Martello towers is in Meelick

Meelick

-Places:Meelick, is a placename used in the West of Ireland.It may refer to:* Meelick, County Clare* Meelick, County Mayo* Meelick, County Galway...

, Co. Offaly, guarding the river crossing on the River Shannon

River Shannon

The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland at . It divides the west of Ireland from the east and south . County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception...

. As this tower supports three guns (unlike the normal Martello tower which is circular on plan and carries only one gun), it is cam shaped on plan. Currently a rampant growth of ivy covers the tower.

The tower at Seapoint

Seapoint

Seapoint is a small seafront area between Blackrock and Monkstown in Dublin in the Dún Laoghaire local authority area. It is best known for its beach and bathing areas, beside a Martello Tower on the Dublin Bay seashore....

, County Dublin

County Dublin

County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...

, was formerly the headquarters of the Genealogical Society of Ireland

Genealogical Society of Ireland

Genealogical Society of Ireland is a voluntary non-governmental organisation promoting the study of genealogy, heraldry, vexillology and social history in Ireland and amongst the Irish Diaspora as open access educational leisure pursuits available to all...

 (GSI). The GSI vacated the tower when it found that the atmosphere was not conducive to the preservation of records.

The restored tower at Ilnacullin

Ilnacullin

Ilnacullin, or sometimes Illaunacullin known locally as Garnish Island , is a very tranquil yet popular tourist attraction in Ireland, located in the small harbour of Glengarriff, County Cork which forms part of Bantry Bay...

 is a feature of an island garden in Glengarriff

Glengarriff

Glengarriff is a village of approximately 800 people on the N71 national secondary road in the south-west region of County Cork, Ireland. Known internationally as a tourism venue, it boasts many natural attractions...

, County Cork

County Cork

County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

. Several other towers are still extant, including one at Rathmullan

Rathmullan

Rathmullan is a small seaside village on the Fanad Peninsula in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. It is situated on the western shore of Lough Swilly, 11 km north-east of Ramelton and 12 km east of Milford...

 in County Donegal

County Donegal

County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...

.

Channel Islands

After the Battle of Jersey

Battle of Jersey

The Battle of Jersey was an attempt by France to invade Jersey and remove the threat the island posed to American shipping in the American War of Independence. Jersey was used as a base for privateering by the British, and France, engaged in the war as an ally of the United States, sent an...

 in 1781, the Governor of Jersey, Henry Seymour Conway

Henry Seymour Conway

Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway was a British general and statesman. A brother of the 1st Marquess of Hertford, and cousin of Horace Walpole, he began his military career in the War of the Austrian Succession and eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal .-Family and education:Conway was...

 embarked on a project to build coastal defences to protect the island from a repeat of the French invasion attempt. The first tower, Seymour Tower, which replaced an earlier tower on the same spot at La Rocque, was built of granite in 1782 and was the only square tower. Thirty round towers followed, positioned in strategic places all around the Island. The round towers differ from the UK Martello towers in two ways. The Jersey towers are mostly built with local granite rather than brick, and they have taller walls.

During World War II, when the Germans occupied Jersey, they destroyed the tower erected on the Bel Royal area and replaced it with a bunker due to its strategic position. The Germans fortified other towers with concrete to use them as defences against allied troops. They used La Rocco Tower in St Ouen Bay as a target for artillery practice; the tower was restored after the war.

To date, 24 of the original towers remain and some have been painted white and red to serve as navigational aids. Furthermore, one may hire, via the National Trust for Jersey, some of the towers, such as Victoria Tower, for short stays. One can hire other towers, such as Archirondel shown on the picture, via Jersey Heritage.

The latest Jersey pound note design (2010) has a picture of the St Clement's tower Le Hocq

Le Hocq

Le Hocq is an area found in the parish of St. Clement, in the south-east of Jersey, Channel Islands.Le Hocq is a Jèrriais name, and means 'the headland' or 'the cape' in English. It is in fact the area surrounding a small headland...

, this tower is also engraved on the reverse of the local 1p coin.

There are four "true" Martello towers in the Channel Islands. These are:

• Fort Kempt - Jersey
• Fort Grey
  Fort Grey
  Fort Grey, colloquially known as the "cup and saucer", is a Martello tower located on a rock in Rocquaine Bay on the west coast of Guernsey. The French called the rock upon which the tower was built the Chateau de Rocquaine...
  
   - Guernsey
• Fort Hommet - Guernsey
• Fort Saumarez - Guernsey

Antigua and Barbuda

The British originally constructed River Fort Martello Tower in the early 19th century to guard nearby River Landing, which was Barbuda

Barbuda

Barbuda is an island in the Eastern Caribbean, and forms part of the state of Antigua and Barbuda. It has a population of about 1,500, most of whom live in the town of Codrington.-Location:...

's original quay. The tower is located on the south coast of the island, a mile or so from River Landing and some seven miles south of the island's main village of Codrington. The tower is 56 feet high, has a raised gun platform and extremely thick walls, but is missing the floors.

It is attached to a pre-existing fort, probably built by the Spanish. The tower mounted three cannon, and in all the fort mounted ten cannons, none of which remain. The tower is the highest building on Barbuda and serves as a navigating point from land or sea.

Australia

The last Martello tower built in the British Empire is said to be that at Fort Denison

Fort Denison, New South Wales

-References:* City Of Sydney Website; , Accessed Jun 2006.* NSW Government; , , Accessed Jun 2006.* Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife, , , Accessed Jun 2006....

, a small island in Sydney Harbour

Port Jackson

Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. It was built to protect Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 against the threat of a naval attack by the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

ns during the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 of the 1850s. However, construction was completed only in 1857, well after the war had ended. Fort Denison is well preserved and is now a popular tourist attraction.

Bermuda

There is a Martello tower located at Ferry Reach

Ferry Reach, Bermuda

Ferry Reach is a three mile long channel in the north-east of Bermuda, which lies between St. George's Island in the north and St. David's Island in the south south-west of the town of St. George's.It extends south from St...

 in St George's Parish. The tower was restored in 2008 and an 18-pounder cannon brought from Fort St. Catherine was mounted on top. The site is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday in the summer and in the winter by appointment only, by calling the Parks Department. It is part of the Bermuda Railway

Bermuda Railway

The Bermuda Railway was a common carrier line that operated in Bermuda for a brief period . In its 17 years of existence, the railway provided frequent passenger and freight service over its length spanning most of the archipelago from St...

 Trail.

The tower is the third fortification on the site. Major Thomas Blanshard built it of Bermuda limestone from 1822-1823. Like its predecessors in the UK, it has an ovoid footprint with the thickness of its walls ranging from nine to 11 feet; also, a dry moat surrounds it. The tower's purpose was to defend the Ferry Beach Channel and so impede any attack on St. George's Island

St. George's Island, Bermuda

St. George's Island is one of the main islands of the territory of Bermuda. It lies in the northeast of the territory. It is divided between the town of St. George's and St. George's Parish...

 from the main island of Bermuda. The British planned, but never built, two more Martello towers to protect the old Royal Naval Dockyard.

British Virgin Islands

When the British rebuilt Fort Recovery

Fort Recovery, Tortola

Fort Recovery is a fort on the West End of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. In historical records, the fort is often referred to as Tower Fort, and the area around the fort is still referred to as "Towers" today...

 on the west end of Tortola

Tortola

Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...

 they added a Martello tower.

Canada

Nine of the fourteen Martello towers built in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 still survive. (In addition, the existing fortifications at Fort Henry

Fort Henry, Ontario

Fort Henry is located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada on Point Henry, a strategic point located near the mouth of the Cataraqui River where it flows into the St. Lawrence River, at the upper end of the Thousand Islands...

 received two thin towers between 1845 and 1848. However, these are dry ditch defence towers, rather than true Martello towers.) A common characteristic of Canadian Martello towers was removable cone-shaped roofs to protect against snow. Today, many of the restored towers have permanent roof additions - for ease of upkeep, not historical accuracy.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, had five towers, the oldest of which, the Prince of Wales Tower  located in Point Pleasant Park

Point Pleasant Park

Point Pleasant Park is a large, partially forested municipal park at the southern tip of the Halifax peninsula. It once hosted several artillery batteries, and a well-preserved 18th century Martello tower can be found there...

, is the oldest Martello-style tower in North America. It was built in 1796 and was used as a redoubt and a powder magazine. Restored, it is now a National Heritage site. The Duke of York Martello Tower  was built in 1798 at York Redoubt

York Redoubt

York Redoubt is a National Historic Site of Canada situated on a bluff overlooking the entrance to Halifax Harbour at Ferguson's Cove, Nova Scotia, originally constructed in 1793. It was a key element in the defence of Halifax Harbour in the 19th and 20th centuries, and underwent many additions to...

. Its lower level still stands, though it has been boarded up for conservation purposes. The Duke of Clarence Martello Tower  stood on the Dartmouth shore. Sherbrooke Martello Tower  stood opposite York Redoubt on McNabs Island

McNabs Island

McNabs Island is the largest island in Halifax Harbour located in Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It played a major role in defending Halifax Harbour and is now a provincial park...

. Another Martello tower stood on Georges Island.

Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

 originally had four Martello towers. Tower No. 1 stands on the Plains of Abraham

Plains of Abraham

The Plains of Abraham is a historic area within The Battlefields Park in Quebec City, Quebec, that was originally grazing land, but became famous as the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which took place on 13 September 1759. Though written into the history books, housing and minor...

, overlooking the St Lawrence River. It has been restored as a museum and one may visit it during the summer months. Tower no. 2 stands close nearby and currently hosts an 1812 Murder Mystery Dinner. Tower No. 3 was demolished in the 20th century after being used as a residence. The fourth surviving Martello Tower in Quebec, No. 4, is located in a residential area on the north side of the Upper City overlooking Lower Town.

Four Martello towers were built at Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

 to defend its harbour and naval shipyards in response to the Oregon Crisis

Oregon boundary dispute

The Oregon boundary dispute, or the Oregon Question, arose as a result of competing British and American claims to the Pacific Northwest of North America in the first half of the 19th century. Both the United Kingdom and the United States had territorial and commercial aspirations in the region...

. Their builders intended for the towers to serve as redoubts against marine attacks. Murney Tower

Murney Tower

Murney Tower is a Martello tower in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, whose construction dates to 1846 and the Oregon crisis. Officially designated as Murray Tower, the locals called it Murney Tower, as it was built on Murney Point, which was owned by the Murney family at the time. They have since...

 and the tower at Point Frederick (at the Royal Military College of Canada

Royal Military College of Canada

The Royal Military College of Canada, RMC, or RMCC , is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, and is a degree-granting university. RMC was established in 1876. RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree granting powers...

) are now museums that are open during the summer.

Fort Frederick

Fort Frederick (Kingston)

Fort Frederick is a historic military building located on Point Frederick on the grounds of the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Its construction dates to 1846 and the Oregon crisis. The fort consists of earthworks surrounding a Martello tower...

, has the most elaborate defences as it includes earthen ramparts and a limestone curtain wall. The Shoal Tower

Shoal Tower

Shoal Tower is a Martello tower located in the harbour of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, directly opposite Kingston City Hall. It is one of four such towers built in the 1840s to protect Kingston's harbour and the entrance to the Rideau Canal...

, the only tower completely surrounded by water, stands in Kingston's Confederation Basin. Since 2005, it is open to the public as part of Doors Open Ontario for one day only in June each year. Cathcart Tower

Cathcart Tower

Cathcart Tower is a Martello tower located on Cedar Island in the St. Lawrence River, off the eastern shore of Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is one of four such towers built in the 1840s to protect Kingston's harbour and the entrance to the Rideau Canal...

, the fourth tower, stands unused on Cedar Island near Point Henry.

Carleton Martello Tower

Carleton Martello Tower

Carleton Martello Tower in Saint John, New Brunswick, is one of the nine surviving Martello Towers in Canada. The tower dates from the War of 1812 and had military significance in conflicts up until the Second World War. The site now features a restored powder magazine, a restored barracks room,...

, overlooking the harbour of Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...

, is now a museum and a National Historic Site.

The Canadian Press reported on April 16, 2006 that the Canadian military has named a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 FOB Martello. A Martello Tower is featured on the logo of the International Hockey Hall of Fame

International Hockey Hall of Fame

The International Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, on the Kingston Memorial Centre grounds features many exhibits within their museum about the history of ice hockey.-Historic Hockey Series:...

 and Museum in Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

Indonesia

The explosion of Krakatoa

Krakatoa

Krakatoa is a volcanic island made of a'a lava in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group, the main island , and the volcano as a whole. The island exploded in 1883, killing approximately 40,000 people, although some estimates...

 in 1883 caused a tidal wave that damaged the Martello tower (Martello Menara), that the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

 built in 1850 on Bidadari Island (Pulau Bidadari), one of the Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu), as part of a set of fortifications that protected the approaches to Batavia

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

. The tower was operational until 1878, when it became a storage site, and was abandoned in 1908. Bidadari Island was also known as Pulau Sakit (Sick Island) as it housed a leper colony during the 17th century. More recently, the island came to be called "Angel Island", to honour the leprosarium that had been there.

Italy

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, during the British "Protectorate" of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 after the escape of the Bourbons from Naples, Sicily began to build towers to resist an invasion by Napoleon's armies led by Joachim Murat

Joachim Murat

Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...

. The new higher rate of fire of ships' guns, led to the choice of the Martello tower as the model.

The Sicilian Martello towers were built around 1810. The estimate rests on the historical context and on the descriptions of the topographer W. H. Smith who carried out his research in 1814 and 1815.
Of the seven towers built in Sicily, only two are still in existence. One is the Mazzone Tower (or the British Fort) at Faro Point, Messina. The second is the Magnisi tower at Priolo Gargallo

Priolo Gargallo

Priolo Gargallo is a comune in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily . It's located about 190 km southeast of Palermo and about 13 km northwest of Syracuse...

, Syracuse. The Italian Navy used this tower as an observation post during the Second World War.

Jamaica

There is a Martello tower located at what was Fort Nugent. In 1709, the Spanish slave agent in Jamaica, James Castillo, built a fort in Harbour View

Harbour View, Jamaica

Harbour View is a community in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica. It is administered by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation and is served by the Kingston 17 Post Office.-Geography:Harbour View is southeast of Long Mountain and south of Dallas Mountain...

, to guard his home against attack. An English Governor, George Nugent, later strengthened the fort to guard the eastern entrance of the city of Kingston

Kingston, Jamaica

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...

 Harbour. The tower was probably built between 1808 and 1811, at a reported cost of £12,000.

Mauritius

The British built five Martello Towers between 1832 and 1835 at Grand River North West, Black River and Port Louis, of which three survive. The Friends of the Environment have restored one, near the La Preneuse

La Preneuse

La Preneuse is a small village in the Black River district of Mauritius, south of Tamarin. It was named after a French ship involved in a naval battle with the English in the 18th century....

 public beach in Tamarin

Tamarin

The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus Saguinus. They are closely related to the lion tamarins in the genus Leontopithecus.- Range :...

, and operate it as a museum for visitors. The original entrance to the tower is raised above ground but a new entrance has been constructed at ground level.

Sierra Leone

A Martello tower was built on Tower Hill at Freetown

Freetown

Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...

, Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

 in 1805 to defend the port from attacks by the Temne people. It was significantly modified in 1870 when it was truncated to allow the installation of a water tank to supply Government House (Fort Thornton) with water. The tower has now been incorporated into Sierra Leone's Parliament Buildings.

South Africa

The British built three Martello towers in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, one at Simon's Town

Simon's Town

Simon's Town , sometimes spelled Simonstown; is a town in South Africa, near Cape Town which is home to the South African Navy. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. For more than two centuries it has been an important naval base and harbour...

 Naval base near Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, one at Cape Town, and the third at Fort Beaufort

Fort Beaufort

Fort Beaufort is a town in the Amatole District of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, and has a population of 78,300. The town was established in 1837 and became a municipality in 1883. The town lies at the confluence of the Kat and Brak rivers between the Keiskamma and Great Fish rivers...

. The tower at Simon’s Town and Cape Town were both built in 1795. The tower at Cape Town was demolished over 100 years ago, but the tower at Simon's Town now is sometimes claimed as the oldest Martello in the world. It is arguable as to whether one should properly call it a Martello Tower.

That said, Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral

Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

 George Elphinstone, who commanded the force that captured the colony and then served briefly as its governor, had served with the Mediterranean fleet off Corsica in 1794. The British built the tower at Fort Beaufort in 1837, and it is probably the only example of an inland Martello tower.

Spain (Minorca)

During the last period of British occupation (1798–1802) of Minorca

Minorca

Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....

, Sir Charles Stuart, the then British governor, ordered Engineer Captain Robert D´Arcy to build some 12 Martello towers along the coast. These, when added to the three Spanish towers already in place, gave Minorca 15 towers.

The British built five towers to protect Mahón

Mahon

Mahón is a municipality and the capital city of the Balearic Island of Minorca , located in the eastern part of the island. Mahon has the second deepest natural harbor in the world: 5 km long and up to 900m. wide...

: Phillipet on Lazareto Island, Cala Taulera (St. Clair) and Los Freus (Erskine) on the peninsula of La Mola, Stuart's Tower, and a tower on the Punta de Sant Carlos, which the Spanish destroyed when they took regained possession of Minorca. To the northwest of Mahón the British built two more towers, Sa Torreta and Sa Mezquita.

One tower, the Princess Tower, or the Erskine Tower, was incorporated into the Fortress of Isabel II, built between 1850 and 1875. The tower was converted to a powder magazine, which led to its destruction in 1958, when lightning struck the tower. The explosion destroyed the tower, blowing out large sections of its walls.
The British erected Stuart's Tower in 1798 on Turks Hill or Hangman's Hill to the south of the port of Mahón

Mahon

Mahón is a municipality and the capital city of the Balearic Island of Minorca , located in the eastern part of the island. Mahon has the second deepest natural harbor in the world: 5 km long and up to 900m. wide...

 at San Estaban or Saint Stephen's bay on the southern side of the Fortress of San Felipe. In 1756 and again in 1781, batteries on the hill had supported successful attacks on the Fortress. The tower was built both to secure the hill and protect the entrance to the bay. The tower's name was later changed to Torre d´en Penjat, or Hangman's Tower.

To protect the harbor of Fornells

Fornells

Fornells may refer to:* Fornells, Minorca* Fornells, Catalonia...

, the British built a tower on the rocky headland overlooking the harbor's mouth, and a small tower on the island of Sargantana. They complemented these two towers with two more small towers nearby, one at Sa Nitsa and one at Addaya.

Lastly, the British built one tower at Santandria to protect the old capital of Ciudadela.

In addition to the 12 towers that they built, the British made use of three towers that the Spanish had built earlier. In 1781, Captain Francisco Fernandez de Angulo had built towers south of Port Mahon at Punta Prima and Alcufar, based on the design of those that the Spanish had built in Gando, Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, with a population of 838,397 which constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago...

, in 1740. At Ciudadela the British used the St. Nicholas's Tower, built in 1690. The Treaty of Amiens

Treaty of Amiens

The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...

 returned Minorca to Spain in 1802. Around 1804, the Spanish built a tower at Punta Na Radona to protect the beach at Son Bou

Son Bou, Minorca

Son Bou is a village in the Alaior region of Minorca, a small island in the Balearics.It is split into three districts: Son Bou , San Jaime and Torre Soli Nou .In all there are four hotels: two in Son Bou, one in San Jaime and one in Torre Soli Nou...

, Minorca. In 1808, Captain Lord Cochrane

Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald

Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, 1st Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM , styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a senior British naval flag officer and radical politician....

, commanding the 38-gun fifth-rate

Fifth-rate

In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail, a fifth rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower.-Rating:...

 frigate HMS Imperieuse, sent ashore a landing party that destroyed the unarmed tower. (Frederick Marryat

Frederick Marryat

Captain Frederick Marryat was an English Royal Navy officer, novelist, and a contemporary and acquaintance of Charles Dickens, noted today as an early pioneer of the sea story...

, later a naval captain and author, was serving as a midshipman

Midshipman

A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...

 aboard Imperieuse at the time.)
(This fort has 17 walls)

Saint Helena

There is a Martello tower at Saint Helena

Saint Helena

Saint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...

 that was incorporated into High Knoll Fort

High Knoll Fort

High Knoll Fort is a redoubt-style fort of the English East India Company on Saint Helena, an island and British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean...

. The tower was very similar in design to the tower at Simon's Town, with a diameter of about 45ft (13.8m) and a height of approximately 20ft (6.15m).

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 has one Martello tower, located at Hambantota

Hambantota

Hambantota is a coastal city in the south of Sri Lanka. It is the capital of the Hambantota District...

 on the south coast, which was restored in 1999. This tower may have been involved in repelling a French attack though there is nothing more than circumstantial support for the notion. British engineers commenced work on three towers to protect Trincomalee

Trincomalee

Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...

 but never completed them.

United States

The United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 government built several Martello towers at locations along the eastern seaboard. Two are at Key West, Florida

Key West, Florida

Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...

; others were built at the harbours of Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the largest city but only the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census...

, Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

 and New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Two more Martello towers stood at Tybee Island, Georgia

Tybee Island, Georgia

Tybee Island is an island and city in Chatham County, Georgia near the city of Savannah in the southeastern United States. It is the easternmost point in the state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,990. Tybee Island is an island and city in Chatham County, Georgia near...

 and Bayou Dupre, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

.

Although the Americans copied the design from the towers the British erected in Canada, the American Martello towers differed in some significant respects from the British. The Martello tower built at Tybee Island, Georgia

Tybee Island, Georgia

Tybee Island is an island and city in Chatham County, Georgia near the city of Savannah in the southeastern United States. It is the easternmost point in the state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,990. Tybee Island is an island and city in Chatham County, Georgia near...

 was constructed around 1815 utilizing wood and tabby

Tabby (cement)

Tabby is a building material consisting of lime, sand, water, and crushed oyster shells. It was developed and used by English colonists in Beaufort County and on the Sea Islands of coastal South Carolina, in coastal Georgia, and in northern Florida in the Southern United States...

, a common local building material at the time, instead of the brick or stone that the British towers used. Also unlike the British towers, the Tybee tower featured gun loops on the garrison floor that enabled musket

Musket

A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....

s to be fired through the walls.

It was never tested in battle and by the time of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 was in a state of disrepair. Its unfamiliar design confused local writers, who often said that the Spanish had built the tower when Georgia was Spain's colony. The Key West martellos were square instead of round and had thin walls with long gun loops. In addition, the Key West Martellos were encircled by a curtain wall of heavy guns, making them, effectively, keeps instead of standalone towers.

A Martello tower figures in the arms of the 41st Infantry Regiment of the United States Army

41st Infantry Regiment (United States)

The U.S. 41st Infantry Regiment is a regiment of the United States Army. Its 1st Battalion is currently assigned to the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division...

.

List of Martello towers outside Great Britain

Country	Location	Tower name	Built	Current status
Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...	Fort Denison	1856	Museum, harbour light station.
Barbuda Barbuda Barbuda is an island in the Eastern Caribbean, and forms part of the state of Antigua and Barbuda. It has a population of about 1,500, most of whom live in the town of Codrington.-Location:...	Near Codrington	River Fort Martello Tower
Bermuda Bermuda Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...	Ferry Reach Ferry Reach, Bermuda Ferry Reach is a three mile long channel in the north-east of Bermuda, which lies between St. George's Island in the north and St. David's Island in the south south-west of the town of St. George's.It extends south from St...		1823–1828	Can be visited
British Virgin Islands British Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...	Tortola Tortola Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...	Fort Recovery Fort Recovery, Tortola Fort Recovery is a fort on the West End of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. In historical records, the fort is often referred to as Tower Fort, and the area around the fort is still referred to as "Towers" today...		Private (hotel)
Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	Halifax, Nova Scotia	Prince of Wales's Tower	1796	Open to public
	Halifax, Nova Scotia	Duke of York's Tower	c.1798	Lower levels still exist. Site partially boarded off, can be visited
	Halifax, Nova Scotia	Duke of Clarence's Tower	c.1798	Demolished prior to 1900
	Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...	Fort Frederick Fort Frederick (Kingston) Fort Frederick is a historic military building located on Point Frederick on the grounds of the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Its construction dates to 1846 and the Oregon crisis. The fort consists of earthworks surrounding a Martello tower...	1846/7	Museum
	Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...	Murney Tower Murney Tower Murney Tower is a Martello tower in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, whose construction dates to 1846 and the Oregon crisis. Officially designated as Murray Tower, the locals called it Murney Tower, as it was built on Murney Point, which was owned by the Murney family at the time. They have since...	1846	Museum
	Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...	Shoal Tower Shoal Tower Shoal Tower is a Martello tower located in the harbour of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, directly opposite Kingston City Hall. It is one of four such towers built in the 1840s to protect Kingston's harbour and the entrance to the Rideau Canal...	1846	Closed to Public
	Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...	Cathcart Tower Cathcart Tower Cathcart Tower is a Martello tower located on Cedar Island in the St. Lawrence River, off the eastern shore of Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is one of four such towers built in the 1840s to protect Kingston's harbour and the entrance to the Rideau Canal...	1846	Closed to Public
	Quebec City, Quebec	Tower #1	1808–1812	Museum
	Quebec City, Quebec	Tower #2	1808–1812	Open for group activities through National Battlefields Commission
	Quebec City, Quebec	Tower #3	1808–1812	Destroyed
	Quebec City, Quebec	Tower #4	1808–1812	Closed to Public
	Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John, New Brunswick City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...	Carleton Martello Tower Carleton Martello Tower Carleton Martello Tower in Saint John, New Brunswick, is one of the nine surviving Martello Towers in Canada. The tower dates from the War of 1812 and had military significance in conflicts up until the Second World War. The site now features a restored powder magazine, a restored barracks room,...	1815	Museum
Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...	Achill Island Achill Island Achill Island in County Mayo is the largest island off the coast of Ireland, and is situated off the west coast. It has a population of 2,700. Its area is . Achill is attached to the mainland by Michael Davitt Bridge, between the villages of Gob an Choire and Poll Raithní . A bridge was first...
	Aughinish	Aughinish Tower Aughinish Tower Aughinish Tower is a Martello tower at Aughinish, County Clare, Ireland dating back to March 1811 when of land for the site was purchased from a Major Lynch....		Private Residence
	Balbriggan Balbriggan Balbriggan is a town in the northern part of the administrative county of Fingal, within County Dublin, Ireland. The 2006 census population was 15,559 for Balbriggan and its environs.- Name :...
	Banagher Banagher Banagher is a town in Ireland, located in the midlands on the western edge of County Offaly in the province of Leinster, on the banks of the River Shannon. The name Banagher comes from its Irish name which translates to English as "the place of the pointed rocks on the Shannon"...	Meelick Tower		Private residence
	Bere Island Bere Island Bere Island or Bear Island is an island off the west coast of County Cork, Ireland. It is roughly 11 km x 5 km in dimension and has a population of 210....  Cloughland
	Bere Island Bere Island Bere Island or Bear Island is an island off the west coast of County Cork, Ireland. It is roughly 11 km x 5 km in dimension and has a population of 210....  Ardagh
	Bray Bray Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...	No.1		Demolished when Esplanade constructed
	Bray Bray Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...	No.2		Private residence
	Bray Bray Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...	No.3 Corke Abbey		Demolished
	Shankill, Dublin Shankill, Dublin Shankill is a suburb in the South-East of Dublin located in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County, Ireland. It has a population of 13,242 .-History:-Name:...	No.4 Mahera Point		Fell into sea
	Killiney Killiney Killiney is a suburb of Dublin in south County Dublin, Ireland. It is within the administrative area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County. The area is by the coast, south of neighbouring Dalkey, and north to Shankill area in the most southern outskirt of Dublin....	No.6 Enoch's Tower		Private Residence
	Killiney Killiney Killiney is a suburb of Dublin in south County Dublin, Ireland. It is within the administrative area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County. The area is by the coast, south of neighbouring Dalkey, and north to Shankill area in the most southern outskirt of Dublin....	No.7 Tara Hill		Fully restored
	Dalkey Island Dalkey Island Dalkey Island is an uninhabited island about 16 km south of Dublin, near the village of Dalkey, 3 km south of Dún Laoghaire harbour...	No.9		Abandoned
	Bulloch Harbour Bulloch Harbour Bullock Harbour is a harbour located on the southeast coast of Dublin Bay in Ireland. It is home to many seals and fishermen. It is possible to rent a boat at the harbour to go to Dalkey Island.-References:...			Private residence
	Finavarra	Finavarra Tower Finavarra Tower Finavarra Tower is a Martello tower in Finavarra, County Clare, Ireland dating back to 1816. Built during the Napoleanic wars, and situated on Finavarra Point, the tower protected the north-eastern side of Ballyvaughan Bay and the south-western entrance of New Quay harbour from possible attack...	1816	Open to public
	Ringaskiddy Ringaskiddy Ringaskiddy is a village south of Cork city, in County Cork, Ireland. Located across Cork harbour south from Cóbh, and connected to Cork city by the N28 road the village is now a major ferry port Port of Cork with passenger ferry services to France & the United Kingdom.Ringaskiddy has seen huge... , Cork Harbour Cork Harbour Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...
	Haulbowline Island, Cork Harbour Cork Harbour Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...			Museum, owned by Irish Navy
	Fota Island Fota Island Fota Island is a small island in Cork Harbour, Ireland, just north of the larger island of Great Island. The name "Fota" is derived from the Irish "Fód te" meaning warm soil... , Cork Harbour Cork Harbour Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...	Monning Tower
	Rossleague, Cobh Cobh Cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour. Facing the town are Spike Island and Haulbowline Island...
	Belvelly Belvelly Belvelly is a small village on the northern end of the Great Island of Cork Harbour, about four miles north of the town of Cobh, County Cork, Ireland.... , Cobh Cobh Cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour. Facing the town are Spike Island and Haulbowline Island...			Private Residence
	Howth Howth Howth is an area in Fingal County near Dublin city in Ireland. Originally just a small fishing village, Howth with its surrounding rural district is now a busy suburb of Dublin, with a mix of dense residential development and wild hillside, all on the peninsula of Howth Head. The only...			Museum & radio station
	Ilnacullin Ilnacullin Ilnacullin, or sometimes Illaunacullin known locally as Garnish Island , is a very tranquil yet popular tourist attraction in Ireland, located in the small harbour of Glengarriff, County Cork which forms part of Bantry Bay...			Tower and gardens open to public (access by boat from Glengarriff Glengarriff Glengarriff is a village of approximately 800 people on the N71 national secondary road in the south-west region of County Cork, Ireland. Known internationally as a tourism venue, it boasts many natural attractions... )
	Ireland's Eye Ireland's Eye Ireland's Eye is a small uninhabited island off the coast of County Dublin, Ireland, situated directly north of Howth Harbour. The island is easily reached by regular tourist boats...
	Kingstown Harbour, West Pier Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...			Demolished, c. 1830s, during construction of Harcourt Street railway line
	Lambay Island Lambay Island Lambay lies off the coast of Fingal / north County Dublin, Ireland in the Irish Sea. It is located north of Ireland's Eye at and is the easternmost point of the Republic of Ireland...
	Lough Swilly Lough Swilly Lough Swilly in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three known glacial fjords in Ireland....	Macamish Tower
	Lough Foyle Lough Foyle Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle , is the estuary of the River Foyle in Ulster. It starts where the Foyle leaves Derry. It separates the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland from County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.-Transport:...	Greencastle Tower		Extended to a Fort completed in 1812. Restaurant
	Lough Foyle Lough Foyle Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle , is the estuary of the River Foyle in Ulster. It starts where the Foyle leaves Derry. It separates the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland from County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.-Transport:...	Magilligan Tower		Restored
	Loughshinny
	Portmarnock Portmarnock Portmarnock is a small suburban village to the north of Dublin, Ireland. It is in the administrative county of Fingal.-Location:Portmarnock lies on the coast and, owing to its proximity to Dublin city, is a form of dormitory village north-northeast of the city centre...			Private residence
	Rathmullan Rathmullan Rathmullan is a small seaside village on the Fanad Peninsula in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. It is situated on the western shore of Lough Swilly, 11 km north-east of Ramelton and 12 km east of Milford...
	Rosaveel
	Rush, Dublin Rush, Dublin Rush is a small seaside town, with a population of 8,280, situated between the communities of Skerries and Lusk in Fingal, Ireland. There has been a large population increase since the previous census in 2002, comprising mostly people from north Dublin....			Ruins
	Sandycove Sandycove Sandycove is an area of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, but north of Dalkey.Sandycove is well-known for its gentlemen's bathing place, the Forty Foot, which in the past afforded a quiet swimming haven for males only...	James Joyce James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century... 's Martello tower		Museum
	Sandymount Sandymount Sandymount is a coastal seaside suburb in Dublin 4 on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It is in the Dublin South East Dáil constituency and the East Pembroke Ward. It was once part of Pembroke Township, which took its name from the fact that this area was part of the estate of the Earl of...
	Seapoint Seapoint Seapoint is a small seafront area between Blackrock and Monkstown in Dublin in the Dún Laoghaire local authority area. It is best known for its beach and bathing areas, beside a Martello Tower on the Dublin Bay seashore....			Headquarters of the Genealogical Society of Ireland Genealogical Society of Ireland Genealogical Society of Ireland is a voluntary non-governmental organisation promoting the study of genealogy, heraldry, vexillology and social history in Ireland and amongst the Irish Diaspora as open access educational leisure pursuits available to all...
	Shenick Island Shenick Island Shenick Island or Shenick's Island is an island that lies east of Skerries, County Dublin, Ireland. It is populated only by seals, that harbour on the western side of the island and a few different species of seabirds nest there. It may be reached by boat but at low tide you can reach it by...
	Sutton Sutton, Dublin Sutton is a residential suburb of Dublin's Northside, Ireland, at the base of Howth Head, the peninsula which forms the northern edge of Dublin Bay.-Location and geography:...			Private residence
	Williamstown
Jamaica Jamaica Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...	Kingston Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...	Fort Nugent	1808-11?
Liberia Liberia Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...	Monrovia Monrovia Monrovia is the capital city of the West African nation of Liberia. Located on the Atlantic Coast at Cape Mesurado, it lies geographically within Montserrado County, but is administered separately...	Fort Stockton	1822	since 1822, august under construction, later named as coast battery Fort Hill
Mauritius Mauritius Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...	Tamarin Tamarin The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus Saguinus. They are closely related to the lion tamarins in the genus Leontopithecus.- Range :...		1832-35
		L'Harmonie	1832-35
		La Preneuse La Preneuse La Preneuse is a small village in the Black River district of Mauritius, south of Tamarin. It was named after a French ship involved in a naval battle with the English in the 18th century....	1832-35	Museum
		Cunningham's Tower	1832-35	Disappeared between 1880 and 1902.
	Fort Victoria		1832-35	Last mentioned 1880
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...	Freetown Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...	Tower Hill Martello Tower	1805	Part of Parliament Buildings
South Africa South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...	Fort Beaufort Fort Beaufort Fort Beaufort is a town in the Amatole District of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, and has a population of 78,300. The town was established in 1837 and became a municipality in 1883. The town lies at the confluence of the Kat and Brak rivers between the Keiskamma and Great Fish rivers...		1839-46
	Simon's Town Simon's Town Simon's Town , sometimes spelled Simonstown; is a town in South Africa, near Cape Town which is home to the South African Navy. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. For more than two centuries it has been an important naval base and harbour...		1795/6	At the Naval Base. Houses a small museum.
	Cape Town Cape Town Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...	Craig's Tower	1795/6	Demolished late 19th Century
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...	Hambantota Hambantota Hambantota is a coastal city in the south of Sri Lanka. It is the capital of the Hambantota District...		1801-03
Trinidad & Tobago	Port of Spain Port of Spain Port of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...	Fort Picton	1801	Abandoned by 1810.
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	Lake Borgne Lake Borgne Lake Borgne is a lagoon in eastern Louisiana of the Gulf of Mexico. Due to coastal erosion, it is no longer actually a lake but rather an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes from the French word borgne, which means "one-eyed".-Geography:...  (LA) Louisiana Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...	Tower Dupre	1830?	Hexagonal; originally built on shore, 150 ft (46 m) from water, near Bayou Dupre Bayou Dupre Bayou Dupre is a bayou in southeastern Louisiana.... 's entrance to Lake Borgne Lake Borgne Lake Borgne is a lagoon in eastern Louisiana of the Gulf of Mexico. Due to coastal erosion, it is no longer actually a lake but rather an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes from the French word borgne, which means "one-eyed".-Geography:... ; private fishing camp; threatened by subsidence and tidal erosion
	Charleston (SC) Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
	Key West (FL) Key West, Florida Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...			East tower is a museum; West tower converted to a botanical garden; both open to the public
	New York Harbor New York Harbor New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...			Destroyed
	Portsmouth, NH Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the largest city but only the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census...	Walbach Tower	1814	Incorporated into Fort Constitution; Ruined
	Tybee Island (GA) Tybee Island, Georgia Tybee Island is an island and city in Chatham County, Georgia near the city of Savannah in the southeastern United States. It is the easternmost point in the state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,990. Tybee Island is an island and city in Chatham County, Georgia near...		1815	Destroyed

See also

• Eastbourne Redoubt
  Eastbourne Redoubt
  Eastbourne Redoubt is a fort on what is now Royal Parade, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England.-History:The Redoubt was built between 1804 and 1810 to support the associated Martello towers in defending against the threat of an invasion by Napoleon. It has defended the Eastbourne coast for nearly 200...
  
  
• Palmerston Forts
  Palmerston Forts
  The Palmerston Forts are a group of forts and associated structures, around the coast of Britain.The forts were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, following concerns about the strength of the French Navy, and...
  
  

Lists:

• List of castles
• List of fortifications
• List of forts

External links

• Martello Towers, both Ireland & worldwide
• Martello Tower at Red Rock Sutton, Dublin
• Restoration of No.7 Tower, Killiney Bay
• Interactive Google Map of Killiney Bay defences
• Carleton Martello Tower National Historic Site of Canada
• English Heritage Martello towers definition and description
• The Dymchurch tower: English Heritage
• James Joyce Tower, Dun Laoghaire
• Martello Towers homepage - a guide to England's south coast Martello towers
• Note on Sir John Moore - pictures of the original tower at Mortella
• Mortella Point (Punta Mortella) in Corsica - the ancestor of Martello towers all over the world
• Seapoint Martello Tower, Co. Dublin Genealogical Society of Ireland (Restoration of an Irish Martello tower)
• Eastbourne Redoubt Fortress Military Museum
• Eastbourne Redoubt
• The National Battlefields Commission - Quebec city's Martello Towers
• National Trust for Jersey Self catering Martello Tower