The Devil’s Tongue is sited on the present Waterport Wharf Road. This old Mole protected the seaward entrance to Gibraltar. It was originally the old Spanish pier built during the reign of King Philip III. Guns were situated in each end of the gaps (embrasures) during the Great Siege 1779 – 1783. The guns were such a scourge to the Spanish that this Mole was called Devil’s Tongue. This Mole is an extension from Chatman’s Counterguard. A drawbridge named the “Chatman Wicket” led on to the Mole (the cemented-up opening in the sea wall is still visible).

Casemates Square

The first of the gates was opened in 1727 and others were opened subsequently in 1859 and in 1884. Beyond lies Casemates Square and the complex of batteries and walls leading up to the Tower of Homage. The area, under the protection of the old castle, is within the confines of the old fifteenth century Spanish town.

Landport Gate

This gate, reconstructed in 1729 by the British on the site on earlier Moorish and Spanish gates, was at one time only landward access to the city. Its drawbridge has recently been repaired and is in full working order. It was through this gate that the troops emerged to carry out the surprise attack on the Spanish lines during the Great Siege: The Sortie.

Northern Defences

Grand Battery, the lowest part of the original Moorish Northern Defence, was known in Spanish days as the Curtain of St Bernard. The Northern area provided defences for the Landport entrance, the Water Gate and the Cooperage. A narrow causeway connected Spain to this narrow land entrance to Gibraltar through Landport Gate. The sea would be lapping the Causeway on one side (Glacis area) and on the other side by water from the inundation dug on the orders of the Prince of Hesse Damstadt (1704). Years later the inundation was enlarged and many deep pits were excavated in it, the idea being that the sharp shooters above King’s Lines could shoot at anybody attempting to cross the causeway.

King’s Bastion

General Sir Robert Boyd (Lt Governor and governor from 1768 to his death in 1794) built King’s Bastion in 1772. It was designed by Lt Col Sir William Green, Chief Engineer. There used to be an ancient Moorish Gate, then a Spanish Bastion (1575). King’s Bastion was the keystone of the defences during the Great Siege. It was from this point that the red hot shots were first fired onto the Spanish Floating Batteries. The bastion provided accommodation for 800 men, an entire infantry battalion. General Sir Robert Boyd is buried inside a vault at the base of the bastion. A Plaque oh the southern wall of the promenade bears testimony to his work.

Queensway

Called Reclamation Road, it was re-named Queensway after the visit of HMQ Elizabeth II 1954. These are Gibraltar’s sea walls. The bastion on the right is South Bastion and was built in 1540.

Line Wall

From the north face of the Rock to Europa Point, there has been a co-ordinated system of defence ever since the British captured Gibraltar in 1704. These defences came to be known as the Line Wall. They were built on the Moorish sea-wall which was strengthened and almost entirely reconstructed. All the land to the west of this wall has been reclaimed from the sea over the years.

Wellington Front

Wellington Front was built by convict labour in 1840. There were over 900 convicts working on the reconstruction of the walls and other defensive works. Off the Front was the anchorage of the “Owen Glendower”, a convict ship renamed after the Welsh Prince and was base of the convict establishment. The ship’s bell, which is now on exhibition at the Gibraltar Museum, rang whenever a convict escaped. Eventually, in 1875, it was found that it was cheaper to employ local labour bas the men did not work hard enough to earn their keep.

Ragged Staff

The first of the gates were constructed in 1843 for foot passage. In 1736 the Contractor to the Navy Victualling Office built a wharf, 350 feet long which had access by way of a flight of stone steps and a drawbridge. There are many theories for the origin of the name, though none have been proved. One of theses theories suggests that the Ragged Staff was a badge of the Emperor Charles V, another, that the name derived from the rough finish of the original work because staff can mean cement or similar building material; certainly Major General Sir John Jones in 1841 called the area “an ill-conditioned spot… and is extremely unmilitary appearance, as well as apparently defenceless state, strikes one with astonishment…” The Gates as they stand today, pierce the wall at the site previously known as the Ragged Staff Couvreport.

This sixteenth century wall, which comes down from the ancient Moorish Wall, past the Trafalgar Cemetery at the southern end of Main Street, was built in the reign of Charles V in 1552 by the Italian Engineer Calvi. It was designed to defend the city after the attack of September 1540mby Turkish Pirates, under the command of Barbarrossa, who took over 70 captives with the intention of selling them to slavery. The original wall dates back to the Moorish period at which time it climbed straight up almost to the top of the Rock. When Charles V died, Philip II took over the building of the wall. Due to the close proximity of the wall to the town, he decided it would be better to continue the wall further away, hence the continuation starting at the apes den named Philip II Wall.

Prince Edward’s Gate

This gate in Charles V Wall, overlooks Trafalgar Cemetery and is named after Queen Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent who was Governor of Gibraltar from 18025 to 1803

Southport Gates

The original gate was built in 1552 in the time of emperor Charles V. The second bears the arms of Queen Victoria and General Sir John Adye, a former Governor of Gibraltar and dates from 1883. The third and widest of these gates, known as Referendum Gates, was opened in 1967 and commemorates the Referendum in which Gibraltarians voted by an overwhelming majority, to retain their links with Britain.

Jumper’s Bastion

This bastion, along Rosia Road, is named after Captain Jumper who was the first to land his troops on Gibraltar during the British capture in 1704.