SEVEN years ago, Bermuda was the recipient of a remarkable award when the town and the forts of St. George’s Parish were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Like many insular societies, we perhaps think we are a chosen people and that such an accolade, along with other privileges, is really ours as a matter of right and entitlement.

That is not the case in respect of “site heritage”, for the award by UNESCO took no cognisance of whether we are nice people, or a bunch of rock scoundrels.

The award was based, to the contrary, upon the merits of inanimate things, dead objects if you like. In this instance, the extraordinary heritage of houses in the town and forts in the countryside, handed down to us by our forebears, won an entitlement as a site of international cultural value on its own merits.

The Town of St. George is an architectural wonder. Compared to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, which was established almost 90 years after St. George’s, it is a very authentic site, as few of its heritage buildings have been rebuilt or recreated, as is much of the case at Williamsburg. Nonetheless, with the proper attention and marketing, the latter sadly lacking for much of Bermuda’s heritage, Colonial Williamsburg has been made into a business that has a budget that equated with that of our government until a few years ago.

St. George’s has a great many historic houses and other outstanding authentic monuments, such as the lovely St. Peter’s Church and the State House. These structures were half the reason for granting Bermuda a World Heritage Site status.

The other 50 per cent was the eastern fortifications that defended the town and Bermuda for more than 350 years, ranging from the minuscule Burnt Point Fort overlooking Ferry Reach Channel to the massive guns of St. David’s Battery.

Originally, the World Heritage status was to be sought, and would likely have been granted, on the basis of the fortifications of Bermuda alone. Then the town was considered as well, so it became a joint heritage venture, except that parochialism resulted in leaving out all of the forts west of St. George’s Parish, including the monumentally outstanding works at the Dockyard.

That situation can be rectified by applying to UNESCO for a “supplementary”, so that all Bermuda’s forts can be designated as world heritage. Many of Bermuda’s forts are simply without parallel. The only forts built in English America prior to the settlement of Bermuda in 1612 were made of timber and have long vanished.

The remains of these palisaded works were discovered as buried archaeological treasures over the last decade or so and James Fort, later called Jamestown, is now celebrating the 400th anniversary of its founding in 1607.

Here at Bermuda we have three forts yet standing, almost as built, from the first decade of settlement. Some of the very small coastal batteries that were built in the first century of settlement are to be seen above ground, or exist as buried archaeological monuments.

The massive forts of the late Georgian and Victorian periods, such as the “gold-plated” Fort Cunningham, so described in the Houses of Parliament in London, as its metal walls cost so much, are also unique.

They mark the period when all the defence monies that were previously funnelled into the West Indies were then earmarked for Bermuda and Halifax, upon the Independence of the English colonies of what became the United States of America.

To this very day, we have benefited greatly from our military situation with the United States. Most recently, the “war on terrorism”, the most recent engagement of US Forces, brings tourists to our shores who might otherwise have visited farther places.

To appreciate the significance of a “World Heritage Site” designation, the world-wide numbers speak eloquently. There are only 830 WHS places on Earth, of which 644 are cultural, 162 are natural and 24 have elements of both.

St. George’s and the associated forts are therefore one site of only 668 on the entire globe. UNESCO labels these places of cultural and natural significance as World Heritage Sites because they are deemed to have “outstanding universal value”.

With the label came very considerable responsibilities to these monuments and sites, both from individual homeowners, municipal and government authorities.

We are now in the seventh year of our WHS status and it may be time to review what progress has been made in facing up to the responsibilities relating to Bermuda’s World Heritage legaciesK>It can be reported that action is taking place on the forts. Under the energetic Minister of Environment, Neletha Butterfield, the refortification of the forts in St. George’s Parish has begun, almost with a bang, following on a condition report on Bermuda’s fortifications commissioned by Dame Jennifer Smith when she was Premier.Appropriately, the first fort to be rearmed and restored is the Martello Tower, which defends the back door of St. George’s Island. On May 2, 2007, with machinery that would have been the envy of the Royal Engineers who installed the first gun, a replica slide and carriage, manufactured in England, was hoisted in less than an hour onto the roof, or gun platform of the Martello.

An original cannon from the collection at Fort St. Catherine, an 18-pounder of the 1820s, immediately followed and was placed on the carriage, ready for combat.

This process of restoration can be seen as one of “refortifying” Bermuda’s World Heritage sites. The gun originally faced across Ferry Reach Channel to stop invading American forces from crossing the water to attack St. George’s Town from its almost defenceless rear.

If the town is not refortifying its historic buildings, the gun could perhaps be rotated in its direction to suggest, if not command, such an important tactic in the ongoing campaign for preserving Bermuda’s heritage of “outstanding universal value”.

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Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments can be t to drhis@logic.bm or by telephone to 799-5480.