Castle Batteries are a series of

artillery batteries In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to fac ...

that are part of the Northern Defences of the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. The batteries descend from the

Moorish Castle The Moorish Castle is the name given to a medieval fortification in Gibraltar comprising various buildings, gates, and fortified walls, with the dominant features being the Tower of Homage and the Gate House. Part of the castle itself also hous ...

to end at the sixth and seven batteries which are known as Crutchett's Batteries. There are brick vaulted bombproof rooms (casemates) under Crutchets Battery. Gibraltar northern approach 1567

The batteries were part of the northern defences of Gibraltar. Armies can only attack Gibraltar without ships from the north and therefore this is heavily fortified around the only gate to Spain called

Landport Landport is a district located on Portsea Island and is considered the city centre of modern-day Portsmouth, England. The district is centred around Commercial Road and encompasses the Guildhall, Civic Centre, Portsmouth and Southsea Stati ...

. Cornwell describes how this was defended by "several batteries, numerous batteries on the

Glacis A glacis (, ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More generally, a glaci ...

of Landport, by Crutchett's and the

Grand Battery Grand Battery (''Grande Batterie'', meaning big or great battery) was a French artillery tactic of the Napoleonic Wars. It involved massing batteries into a single large, temporary battery, and concentrating the firepower of their guns at a singl ...

". He speculated that no army could withstand the

grapeshot In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of ammunition that consists of a collection of smaller-caliber round shots packed tightly in a canvas bag and separated from the gunpowder charge by a metal wadding, rather than being a single solid projectile ...

from 400 "pieces of heavy artillery".

References

Artillery battery fortifications in Gibraltar {{Gibraltar-struct-stub