In August 1859 a Royal Commission was instructed
to look into the “present state, condition and sufficiency
of the Fortifications existing for the defence of our United
Kingdom.” One of the experts consulted by the Commissioners
was General Sir John Burgoyne, who pointed out that any
attacker who could occupy the high ground to the north of
Dover Castle would dominate
the Castle. He recommended that a fort be built on this
high ground to protect the Castle from attack. Work started
on the construction of the fort in 1861, and it was originally
known as Castle Hill Fort but was soon renamed Fort Burgoyne
in honour of the General. The fort was finally completed
by the end of 1868 at a total cost of £88,053.
The fort is polygonal with a 35 foot wide ditch around it.
In the centre of the north face, hidden in the ditch, is
a double caponier to give flanking fire along the ditch
floor in both directions. At both the north-east and north-west
corners of the fort are single caponiers, with another on
the west flank to give cover to the remaining ditches. The
main fort is flanked by two wing redoubts, each with its
own gun emplacements, one on each side connected to the
main fort by ditch works. The battery at the west wing was
protected by a caponier to defend the ditch. The Dover to
Deal road crosses the eastern ditch and the Dover to Guston
road the western ditch.
In the centre of the fort is a parade ground surrounded
on three sides by bomb proof barracks protected by a covering
of earth on top of which were the main gun positions. There
are also two earth ramps from the parade ground up to the
level of the gun emplacements for the transporting of the
guns to their emplacements. The fort was initially armed
with 29 guns on the ramparts of which 6 were in Haxo casemates
(bomb proof vaulted gun emplacements designed by General
Haxo). In the caponiers and flanking batteries there was
room for 26 smaller guns, and two guns on the parade ground
level protected the ditch to the east wing battery. East
wing battery was equipped with five guns and west wing battery
with four.
The armament of the fort was updated though out the 19th
century to keep abreast of developments in weaponry. By
1906 all the large guns had been removed and replaced by
three machine guns in the fort and three in its wing batteries.
At this time the fort became a defensible barrack and a
base for mobile guns rather than a permanent defence. During
the
First World War
brick gun emplacements were constructed and during the
Second,
when the fort was home to two batteries of 25 pounder field
guns, concrete emplacements were added. Fort Burgoyne remains
virtually unchanged today but it is not accessible to the
public, being within the secure area of Connaught Barracks.