Martello Tower

I grew up in Dublin, these are all over the place there. I particularly like the one in Loughshinny, there's a rope hanging out the (metres above the ground) doorway, and you can climb in to explore.

The floor inside has collapsed, but you can shimmy around on the ruin of an interior wall to get to a spiral staircase, which brings you up to the gun platform up top. No gun left, unfortunately :p. There is a murder hole* though.

* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_hole

> Curiously enough, the name of the Marletto Tower shows a remarkable similarity with 19th-century British fortification named Martello tower (see wikipedia). Whether the name in Heroes of Might and Magic III is just a misspelling or intentional, that remains unknown. [1]

[1] https://heroes.thelazy.net/index.php/Marletto_Tower

The one nearest me has a fantastic museum [0] inside.

A large part of it is dedicated to old tech donated by locals over the years. Highly recommended if you’re in the area.

[0]: https://seafordmuseum.co.uk/

The Harwich one hosts a beer festival every year. It’s fun

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harwich_Redoubt

I live near the Prince of Wales Tower (the first image in the article), but only today learned that it’s the oldest Martello tower in North America! It’s the first location on Bloomsday gatherings in Halifax.

Of the ones listed, I've only been to the two in Key West, FL, USA.

Neither of them (currently) outwardly resembles the, apparently common, cylindrical/cone look of most of the ones pictured in the wiki.

The West Tower garden is beautiful. The East Tower is a museum and my primary memory of it is that it houses this creepy doll that we learned about during a Ghost tour and had to go see for ourselves: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/robert-doll

Some have been converted into homes, good example here https://www.wowhaus.co.uk/2014/09/21/on-the-market-award-win...

I'm a James Joyce fan, but I had no idea until now that Fort Denison here in Sydney Harbour is a Martello tower.

The opening of James Joyce's masterpiece novel Ulysses [1] is set in a martello tower. They're dotted all around Dublin.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)

I went on a ship around the world in college -- started in Nova Scotia and ended in California.

I had an opportunity to see TWO of these towers! In Halifax and Mauritius (in the Indian ocean).

It really drove home the old quip about the sun never setting on the British empire. Especially having arrived by sea.

I grew up in the Fort Johnson neighborhood in Charleston, so I was surprised to see that it was listed as a martello. The magazine is definitely still there, a little brick building with very thick walls (especially for the size of the building). It looks like several forts were built and destroyed on the site (https://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/mrri/ftjohnson.html) but the only trace I've ever seen are the earthwork battlements along the harbor side. The location is better known for the point (right by the magazine) where the first shot of the civil war was fired towards Fort Sumter.

The one in Simon's Town, South Africa, is supposedly the oldest one built in 1795.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Martello_Tower,_...

The one in Dalkey (south Co. Dublin) is supplemented by another tower on top of nearby Dalkey hill that could see ships from further away and signal down to the Martello tower.

What will be the equivalent standard defence structure found on the sites of former US Army bases in the future? Is there one?