Harry's Walls

Visitor Guide

Harry's Walls is reached via an uphill footpath on the west side of St Mary's, best approached on foot or by bicycle from Hugh Town. The climb is short but has uneven surfaces underfoot, and a sheer drop close to the site means visitors, particularly those with children, should take care once at the fort itself.

What survives is modest in scale but architecturally significant: the two completed south-western bastions and their connecting wall, their pointed, arrow-headed profile clearly visible even in ruin, a design feature that marks Harry's Walls out as a genuinely advanced piece of military engineering for its date. Because the fort was abandoned mid-construction, there is a rare clarity to what remains, uncomplicated by the later rebuilding and adaptation seen at most of Scilly's other coastal defences.

A visit need only take fifteen to twenty minutes, making Harry's Walls an easy and worthwhile addition to a longer day exploring St Mary's, particularly when combined with the much more extensive Garrison Walls nearby, whose completed defences offer a striking contrast to Harry's Walls' unfinished state. Hugh Town, a short walk away, has the island's main shops, cafes and the Isles of Scilly Museum.

History

Harry's Walls owes its existence to the anxious defensive climate of mid-Tudor England. Henry VIII's break with Rome in the 1530s had left the south coast newly vulnerable to attack from Catholic France or Spain, prompting the king to order a nationwide chain of artillery forts and blockhouses to guard the country's most important harbours and beaches. The Isles of Scilly, sitting at the very entrance to the English Channel, were recognised as strategically significant, but Henry died in 1547 before any major fortification programme reached the islands, his only defensive measure there the stationing of 150 soldiers at the existing Ennor Castle.

It was the government of his young son, Edward VI, that finally funded construction at Harry's Walls, beginning in 1551. The scheme represented an early and ambitious attempt to mount heavy artillery capable of protecting the approaches to the natural harbour that had developed at what is now Hugh Town. The fort was designed on a square plan, with large, pointed bastions projecting from each corner, an arrow-headed design first developed in Italy during the late 15th century and representing genuinely cutting-edge military architecture for an English fortification of this date, predating similar bastion designs later built at Carisbrooke Castle and Berwick-on-Tweed.

Despite this ambitious start, construction at Harry's Walls never progressed beyond its earliest stages. Only the two south-western bastions and an 89-foot stretch of connecting wall between them were ever completed before the builders recognised a fundamental problem with the site: its position simply could not provide adequate defensive coverage of Hugh Town's harbour. Rather than continue building on unsuitable ground, attention shifted to a different headland nearby, later known as The Garrison, which proved far better suited to the task and went on to host the much more substantial Star Castle, completed in the 1590s.

Harry's Walls was consequently abandoned as an active building project, its two finished bastions and short length of wall left standing as a permanent record of a fortification scheme that changed course before completion. This unfinished state, unusual among England's Tudor coastal defences, gives the site a particular historical value, preserving in stone the exact moment military planners recognised their mistake and moved elsewhere. Today Harry's Walls is owned by English Heritage, freely open to visitors, and stands as a quiet, rarely visited counterpart to the much larger and more famous Garrison defences a short distance away.

Important Features

• The two south-western bastions: the only sections of the planned fort ever completed.
• The connecting wall: an 89-foot stretch of curtain wall linking the two finished bastions.
• Arrow-headed bastion design: an early English example of angled bastion architecture developed in Italy.
• Its unfinished plan: a rare, unaltered snapshot of a mid-Tudor fortification abandoned mid-construction.
• Hilltop setting: views across St Mary's illustrating exactly why the site was ultimately judged unsuitable.
• Historical link to the Garrison: the direct predecessor to Star Castle and the wider Garrison defences nearby.

Visitor Information

Things to Do Nearby

Frequently Asked Questions

Official English Heritage Site

For the latest access information, events and any temporary restrictions, check the official English Heritage page for Harry's Walls before you travel.

Visit the official English Heritage website