Background/History
Fort Charlotte, once a formidable complex of batteries, barracks, moat, powder, magazines, drawbridge and outworks, was built with Herculean effort 636 feet above the sea upon Berkshire Hill during the closing years of the eighteenth and early years of the nineteenth centuries. The Fort was completed in 1806, and was the chief defence of the island.
The Fort was started soon after St. Vincent and the Grenadines was ceded to the British in 1763. Fort Charlotte was named after Queen Charlottle [sic] the wife of King George III of England.
The Fort was the headquarters of the resident garrison, and became the largest Fort on the island. It's armament included thirty-four cannons, four, six and twelve pounders and the rampart, eleven, thirty-two pounders and two mortars.
An interesting feature of the Fort is the position of cannons placed pointing inland; they were positioned for defence against inland attack from the Caribs and French.Fort Charlotte remains an historic landmark of national significance and tourism importance.
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