Salient Place of Arms; an enlargement of the Covered Way, here protected by a traverse. Troops might be assembled here for a sortie against the beseigers or to make a stubborn defense of the Covered Way.
Inside the left-hand bastion. It was such a bitter, windy day I was almost blown off my feet. At the salient point of the bastion, you can make out the little stone sentry box called a guerite.
On the bridge looking toward the rear right of the ravelin. The raised area was the artillery platform that is reached by a long ramp leading from the centre of the "terre pleine" which was the main interior space of the ravelin up to it's salient (or forward) point.
Inside one of the forts' casemates. It was meant to hold 40 soldiers in bomb-proof accomodation. The structure at the rear is a mean little fire-place.
Salient point of a bastion looking into a guerite. Note how the length of the walkway into the guerite illustrates how deep the ramparts of these kinds of fortifications were.
A nice view along the ditch to the sluice gate at the very rear that was to enable the ditch to be flooded. It only worked at high tide! The main gate is on the right, with a bastion standing in the ditch. The ravelin begins at the left of the picture.
A traverse - used to stop shot being fired in enfilade down the covered way. Note the narrow stair set in the counterscarp revetment called a Pas de Souris. It was so narrow as it is to prevent more than one soldier at a time descending into the ditch.
9 comments:
Great pics.
I was there and also at Culloden (no, not during the actual battle!) on a vacation several years ago. This post reminded me I have some pics from there, too.
I too enjoy these pictures. Thank you.
-- Jeff
Thanks gentlemen for your comments. I think I said this elsewhere, but the visit really cemented my understanding of how these places "worked".
I'm hoping to post a few more images over the next few days with a few more illustrative notes.
I can feel another fortress phase coming on..!
Yes, very good clear pictures and descriptions. Thanks! Look forward to more.
David.
Very interesting indeed makes one wishing for a Vauban siege game, Dendermonde-fashion!
BTW, were not the 'guerites' also used as 'rest rooms' (straight down to the ditch)?
Regards,
Jean-Louis
Indeed it does Jean-Louis.
I'm not sure whether the guerites were put to the use you describe. I think the Germans had a term "mauerscheisser" (spelling?) which describes better the way things were done in garrison towns!
If you are inthe UK again you should try Tilbury Fort in Essex. Try this link:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.12192
"Bloggerator",
I peruse the Duchy since long enough (specially barbaric pidgin, I feel..) to *know* that you have the required Vauban fortifications to play such a siege game!
Compliments,
Jean-Louis
Having just finished reading about Marlborough's sieges I'm itching to have a go.
I've always thought of sieges as long drawn out affairs but the duke seesmto have conducted them very quickly. Even Lille, the greatest fortress in Europe allegedly, was carried within two months. The witness evidence indicates that a few days of hard pounding and then an assault was all it took. Yet these fortifications look fiercesome - perhaps that's the secret, they look worse than they actually were?
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