The small plateau was originally used as a lookout with a guard post that was rebuilt in the 1760s. The cliff down to the sea was considered unclimbable, but guns were mounted to cover the beach at Camp Bay. By 1834 there were two 18-inch howitzers and two 32-pdrs guns mounted here, but these were shown as removed by 1859.
A single 9-inch RML in an open iron shielded emplacement was installed here by 1872 on the recommendation of Jervois. This emplacement was largely lost in 1896 when a new Quick Fire Battery to counter faster motor torpedo boats was built on the same location. The two 12-pdr 12-cwt Quick Fire Mark 1 guns were installed in 1902. These two guns were later moved to the Upper Union Communication Tunnel on the North Front. (TUK National Archives 78/3841).
During World War Two a 4-inch naval gun was installed at this location.
The other 9-inch RML batteries in Gibraltar were at:
- Buena Vista, 1 gun
- Calpe Battery, 3 gun
- Governor’s Lookout, 1 gun
- Ince’s & Forral’s Farms, 1 gun each
- New Mole Battery, 4 guns
The other 12-pdr 18-cwt gun batteries in Gibraltar were at:
- Buena Vista, 2 guns
- Devil’s Gap Battery, 2 guns
- Engineer Battery, 3 guns
- Montague Bastion, 2 guns
- North Mole Elbow Battery, 2 guns
- Upper Union Gallery, 2 guns
The Barrack Block
The substantial rectangular barrack block was constructed in the 1840s to the designs of Major General Sir John Thomas Jones. Also known as the “Stone Block”, its simple design consisted of a single rectangular block with windows on each side, divided into two sections on each floor with three wide intercommunicating rooms in each section. It was used for many years by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment but was subsequently converted for commercial use as factory and storage units.