This is the latest in a series of occasional articles on the shared histories of Bermuda and the United States, which celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence this year. The articles, by Heritage Matters author Edward Harris, will run throughout the year.

In discussing the refortification of Bermuda in the last few weeks, pursuant to protecting the island in the event of hostile action from our large neighbour to the west, the question of land ownership and appropriation by purchase or eminent domain sometimes arises, such as for the large estate that is Scaur Hill Fort “Park”.

An answer for some of the lands appeared lately in a photograph of an old sign for one of the little batteries along the south coast. Excepting St George’s Parish (the “Common Land”) in the first few decades of settlement, all lands in Bermuda were privately held, starting in 1612 with the investors of the Virginia/Bermuda Companies, their ownership recorded in the splendid Norwood-derived maps of Speed, Blaeu, Hondius etc

However, even on private lands, some acreage was taken by the military authorities or just used as a responsibility of the owners and men of the parish.

The sign reads: “OLD BATTERY. Norwood’s Map of Bermuda 1626 shows picture of single gun (probably ship’s gun) near this spot. In ‘the Bermuda Defence Act, 1865’ the land above Coral Beach is referred to as ‘site of old battery’. The old platform [yet extant] here was probably constructed about 1796 to take two guns during Napoleonic Wars. The property the deeds of which date from the 17th Century was taken over by the British Government for several years, and when abandoned for defence purposes [?1880s], it was sold to Alfred Blackburn Smith, a descendant of the original owner.”

So, there we have it that some of the very small sites of fortifications in the 1800s were likely sold to the original land-holders or other private persons. The same opportunity seems not to have been afforded to the original owners of large sites, such as Ireland, Boaz and Watford Islands, Daniel’s Head or Scaur Hill Fort, just to name a few in Sandys Parish.

The refortification of Bermuda in the 1860s and 1870s entailed the some entirely new works, such as Whale Bay Fort and Scaur Hill Fort, both covering the westernmost extremity of the “Main”, or largest island in the Bermuda archipelago. The former was erected on the highest part of the coast above Whale Bay Beach, where a little battery from earliest times had also been emplaced, covering that landing spot.

Whale Bay Fort and its surrounding acreage, next the aptly named “Landmark” condos, may have been purchased from the heirs of Governor Daniel Tucker, the major player in what some might call the “Overplus Scandal”.

Later descendants, perhaps, sold the remaining large acreage so that the public Port Royal Golf Course could be implanted at considerable taxpayers’ costs over the last half century.

Had a similar millions-of-dollars taxpayers’ amount been spent on our splendid decaying heritage, including the forts, we would have had far better “tourist attractions” than at present.

While looking like a fort, as also exemplified at Scaur Hill, Whale Bay Fort architecturally marks the end of the old castle to be defended by ramparts and boiling oil to be replaced simply by fixed guns in the landscape. If there are any of those left, the “Drones of Ukraine” are buzzing overhead to their utter consignment to the dustbin of history: the long game is over!

The fort, now assailed by white cannonballs daily, protected the entrance to the channel off the brilliant white sands of the shallow waters of the Pompano hotel and, in the last days of Bermuda’s military endeavours, the US spying station next door at Tudor Hill.

This was in the coming age of torpedo boats, slim of beam and shallow of draught vessels that could easily run up the western channel, past Daniel’s Head, to attack shipping at the Dockyard, from the rear, as it were, dropping their torpedo bomblets into the cool waters of Grassy Bay.

The public 22-acre park that now envelopes Scaur Hill Fort stood a few miles from Whale Bay and had a different function. In the event of American Forces advancing from the beaches of the south coast, its two guns on “Moncrieff Disappearing Carriages” of the 1870s would first destroy the “world’s smallest drawbridge” between Somerset Island and the Main.

The fire would then be directed into the hinterland of Sandys Parish, showering the land perhaps as far as the “Overplus” with rubble and war debris. Fortunately, neither of those two refortification units of the Far West of Bermuda were ever called into Service.

• Dr Edward Harris is the founding executive director emeritus of the National Museum of Bermuda