The Medway Forts
Discover the Hidden History of the Medway Forts

Customised map

Map showing locations of various monitoring wells and geological features.

Historic brick building with twin towers and arched entrance under a cloudy sky.

Brompton Barracks

Brompton Barracks is still in use by the army. There is no way you can get acsess to this site, apart from the Royal engineers museum which is located outside the sites perimiter. This museum probally has lots of interesting stuff inside, but I find it too museumish for my liking.

Status: Still in use (exept for one building which is a museum)
Access to site: No (exept for Royal engineers museum which is located outside of the hevely gaurded perimiter)

Old military bunkers in a grassy field under a blue sky.

Centre Bastion Battery

Centre Bastion Battery is located inside the sheerness docks.

There are a load of historic listed buildings at Sheerness Docks as well as two forts, but the companies who run the docks don't seem to like these buildings. They don't let people onto the site to see the forts.

Status: In private use.
Access to site: No

Row of modern, industrial-style buildings with slanted roofs and large windows.

Chatham Dockyard

This has been turned into a museum.

Status: Turned into tourist attraction
Access to site: Yes (but there is an entry fee)

An old stone building beside an overgrown path in a rural area.

Chattenden Barracks

Chattenden Barracks (not to be confused with the nearby Lodge Hill Barracks) is a set of barracks at lodge hill. This is a large site with lots of interesting things all around the area. The barracks themselves have sadly been demolished.

There used to be a railway that went from these barracks to the military pier next to upnor castle.

Status: Abandoned!
Access to site: If you try hard enough

A flat, grassy landscape with scattered small huts under a gray sky.

Cliffe Explosives Factory

This is a very large site which has loads of abandoned buildings all over it. It is currently used as a farm.

Status Abandoned
Access to site: Its in a field

Ancient stone arches reflected in calm water under a blue sky.

Cliffe Sea Fort

This is an awesome abandoned fort. This is quite a large site and is fun to explore. The lower floor has been flooded. This fort is located at the cliffe nature reserve.

Status Abandoned!
Access to site: YES (climb over fence)

Historic stone fortress with multiple windows and green surroundings.

Coalhouse Fort

This fort is owned by the council and only opens to the public once a month. This place is nice, but I prefer my forts to be abandoned, like the nearby East Tilbury Battery.

Status: Turned into tourist attraction
Access to site: Yes (but there is an entry fee)

Ancient red brick ruins with arched structures surrounded by greenery.

Cookham Wood Fort

This fort is owned by the council and only opens to the public once a month. This place is nice, but I prefer my forts to be abandoned, like the nearby East Tilbury Battery.

Status: Abandoned (not much of it left)
Access to site: Yes

Ancient stone castle entrance with twin round towers.

Cooling Castle

This fort is owned by the council and only opens to the public once a month. This place is nice, but I prefer my forts to be abandoned, like the nearby East Tilbury Battery.

Status: Turned into a house
Access to site: No, Unless you are very rich!

A historic fortress with green lawns under a cloudy sky.

Fort Amherst

Fort Amhurst in located in Chatham. This fort is now a tourist attraction.

The top part of the fort can now be visited without having to pay to go in the main part of the fort.

Status: Turned into tourist attraction
Access to site: Yes (underground parts have an entrance fee)

A rural scene with grassy fields and a distant stone wall under a cloudy sky.

Fort Borstal

Fort Borstal is a historic abandoned fort in Medway which is currently privetly owned and is not open to the public.

Status: In private use
Access to site: No

Fire trucks parked near a road on a cloudy day.

Fort Bridgewoods

Fort Bridgewoods was a historic fort which has been demolished. A stupid buissness park has been built in its place. A discusting loss of heratage.

This historic fort has been demolished.

Historic round brick fortress with arched windows and turret.

Fort Clarence

Fort Clarence is a historic fort which has been horribly modernized and turned into a house. I hate it when buildings are over restored in this way, it loses all of the building charactor.

Status: Turned into a house
Access to site: Kind of (you can look at the area around the building)

A suburban street with parked cars and houses under a cloudy sky.

Fort Darland

This fort has sadly been demolished, and a housing estate has been built in its place.

This historic fort has been demolished.

Historic stone fortification near a body of water.

Fort Darnet

Fort Darnet is on and island and is only accessible by boat. The island is uninhabited and there are no boat trips to it. The only way there is to have your own boat.

Status: Abandoned
Access to site: Yes, if you have a boat

A quiet street with a tall green hedge and red-and-white striped pole.

Fort Delce

Fort Delce is a historic fort, most of it has been demolished. A smallpart of it has been turn into a second hand car dealer.

This historic fort has been demolished.

An old stone corridor with arched ceilings and doorways.

Fort Hoo

Fort Hoo is on and island and is only accessible by boat. The island is uninhabited and there are no boat trips to it. The only way there is to have your own boat.

Status: Abandoned
Access to site: Yes, if you have a boat

Historic stone fortress entrance with wooden gate and arched doorway.

Fort Horstead

Fort Horstead is a historic fort which has been turned into a buissness park. The Fort has been kept original and the buissness units are located inside the fort. They have done without losing the charactor of the Fort. The whole place still feels original and unmodernized, making this an awesome place to run a buissness. Also there are loads of nice dark abandoned passageways.

Status: In private use
Access to site: Try asking nicely at reception

A quiet road leads to an old, weathered entrance gate surrounded by trees.

Fort Luton

Fort Luton is a historic fort built between 1876 and 1892. In the 1990s this place opened as a zany museum and children's play area. I have fond memories of going here when I was very young. Fort Luton closed in 2001 after arguments by the people running it. Today the fort is in a very poor state.

Status: In private use
Access to site: No

A large brown brick building with vertical columns and a traffic light in front.

Fort Pitt

This was a historic fort, which was demolished a long time ago. A school and arts college has been built in its place.

This was a historic fort, which was demolished a long time ago. A school and arts college has been built in its place.

Historic fortification by the water with modern buildings in the background.

Garrison Point Fort

Garrison Point Fort is located inside the sheerness docks.

There are a load of historic listed buildings at Sheerness Docks as well as two forts, but the companies who run the docks don't seem to like these buildings. They don't let people onto the site to see the forts.

Status: In private use
Access to site: No

A river flows past a grassy hill with electrical towers in the background.

Grain Battery

This is a small abandoned fort located in the middle of a horse field. It is located opersite the sea fort and isn't far from the land fort.

Status: Abandoned
Access to site: YES

Narrow brick tunnel with damaged walls and dim lighting.

Grain Land Fort

Grain Fort is located on the shore oppersite the sea fort. This places has been turned into a park. There are two sets of underground tunnels under this fort.

Status: Turned into park (but there is an abandoned section)
Access to site: YES

A tidal path leads to a distant wooden structure on a muddy shore.

Grain Sea Fort

Grain Tower is a mid-19th-century gun tower situated offshore just east of Grain, Kent, standing in the mouth of the River Medway. It was built along the same lines as the Martello towers that were constructed along the British and Irish coastlines in the early 19th century and is the last-built example of a gun tower of this type. It owed its existence to the need to protect the important dockyards at Sheerness and Chatham from a perceived French naval threat during a period of tension in the 1850s.

Status: Abandoned!
Access to site: YES (When tide is out)

Closed metal gate blocking a rural driveway.

Grange Redoubt

Grange Redoubt is the first of the two Twydall Redoubts, it was built in 1885.

Grange Redoubt is the most elusive of the forts in Medway. Here is the entrance to the land where the fort is believed to be. None of the locals seemed to know anything about it.

Status: Unknown (It seems that most of it has been demolished)
Access to site: No

A dimly lit stairway leading downwards at night.

Gravesend nuclear bunker

This bunker is owned by the council and there are guided tours every now and then.

It is located at the side of a park. The only thing to be seen on the outside is just a fenced off staircase. But down the staircase is an amazing collection of 1950s items from the cold war. Its like an entire secret hidden world.

Status: Owned by gravesend council
Access to site: there are occasional guided tours

A historic red-brick building with ornate architecture under a bright blue sky.

HMS Pembroke

Despite the name, this is not a boat. This is an army barracks that has been turned into the Universities at Medway.

Status: Owned by the university
Access to site: YES

Dimly lit, abandoned industrial tunnel with rusted metal structures.

HMS Wildfire

Despite the name this is not a boat. This is a large underground wartime control center. It is 30 meters deep. It is sealed up and acsess is not possible. Urban Explorers usually only manage to get in a few times every decade. The site is pretty much intact. As far as I can tell a group of chavs only managed to get in once and vanderlised the place (Asbestos walls smashed, toilets smashed, and the operations room was set on fire). Luckly the chavs didn't cause too much damage and the place is pretty much how it was when it was abandoned.

Status: Abandoned Tunnels (top part turned into park)
Access to site: Tunnels: No, Park: Yes

Rural building with storage containers and a parked car.

Kingsnorth Airship Station

This was a second world war airship station. This is located inside the Kingsnorth power station complex.

When this site was decomisioned after the war, a local farmer brought one of the airship hangers, and had it moved to his farm at St Mary Hoo.

Status: In private use

Access to site: Try asking nicely at reception

Four elevated structures standing in the water off the coast.

Maunsell Sea Forts

The Maunsell Sea Forts are a collection of awesome abandoned forts miles out at sea. The closest one to Medway in the Redsands Fort. In the 1950s These forts were used by pirate radio stations./;;

A vast grassy field with a clear sky and scattered structures in the distance.

Medway (Southern Water) nuclear bunker

This is an awesome cold war nuclear bunker. It is totaly abandoned and epic. It is pitch black inside!

Status: Abandoned!
Access to site: YES

A distant view of a train passing through a barren field with fencing in the foreground.

Milton Range

This is a firearms training range near gravesend.

There used to be a train station here. This was a very nice little halt in the middle of nowhere, and the strangest thing about it was that it had a signal right in the middle of the platform. This station had been abandoned since 1961 but despite this the platforms survived until 2008/2009 when the station was sadly demolished.

Status: IN USE
Access to site: No

Outdoor museum or fort area with historical structures and pathways.

New Tavern Fort

This fort is located in Gravesend and has been turned into a park.

Type: Turned into park
Access to site: YES

Entrance to an underground tunnel with directional markings on the wall.

Northfleet AEI Tunnels

Northfleet AEI Tunnels is situated on the bank of the River Thames at Northfleet. Built around 1906, the location saw heavy use during World War 2 when it made vital contributions towards projects such as Operation PLUTO. As a result, a shelter was built in to the nearby chalk-face of the old Rosherville Gardens - providing the capability to allow up to 2000 people to seek refuge during air-raids. This shelter possessed 6 entrances and boasted electric ventilation, toilet facilities, and a first aid post. WT Henley was acquired by AEI in 1959, who would go on to use the site until 2008 when it was closed.

Status: In private use
Access to site: Try asking nicely at reception

Ancient stone castle ruins with tall walls and multiple windows.

Rochester Castle

Rochester Castle stands on the east bank of the River Medway in Rochester, Kent, South East England. The 12th-century keep or stone tower, which is the castle's most prominent feature, is one of the best preserved in England or France.

Status: Turned into tourist attraction
Access to site: Yes (but there is an entry fee)

Ancient ruins with arches under a blue sky.

Shornmead Fort

This is a small abandoned fort located on the shore half way between Gravesend and Cliffe.

Status: Abandoned
Access to site: Yes

Sealed cave entrance in a rocky, wooded area with a small circular concrete patch nearby.

Shorts Tunnels

The Shorts Tunnels are a maze of underground tunnels under rochester. They used to be the Shorts Brothers factory for making airoplanes in the war.

These tunnels are abanoned, and were accessible until 2010 when some chavs lit a fire in the tunnels so the council blocked up the last remaining entrance.

Status: Abandoned!
Access to site: NO

Ancient stone castle ruins with tall walls and multiple windows.

Slough Fort (Allhallows)

This is located in a farm at Allhallows. This fort was being used as horse stables, it is now being repaired and going to be opened as part of the neighbouring Haven holiday park. Here are some photos from a special tour of the fort in October 2014.

Status: Opening soon as tourist attraction
Access to site: opening soon

Stone entrance with ornate carvings and a dark archway.

Tilbury Fort

Tilbry fort is an english heritage site on the otherside of the river to Gravesend's New Tavern Fort.

Status: Turned into tourist attraction
Access to site: Yes (but there is an entry fee)

A brick tunnel entrance embedded in a grassy hill under a partly cloudy sky.

Upper Lines

This is the upper part of the lines fortifications. Some of this site has been turned into sports grounds for the army estate, but unlike the lower lines, the ditches are abandoned and fenced off.

Status: Turned into a park (some parts abandoned, and some parts in use as sports grounds for the army estate)
Access to site: Some of it

A historic stone castle by a calm river with boats moored nearby.

Upnor Castle

Upnor castle is older than all of the other forts (which were mainly built around the 1860s). Upnor castle is a Tudor fort built in 1559.

This site is now a tourist attraction. Apart from a few annoying musuemish signs, this place doesn't feel too much like its turned into a tourist place.

Status: Turned into tourist attraction
Access to site: Yes (but there is an entry fee)

HM Coastguard bases key

Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Fareham

Hampshire

Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs)

Helicopter bases