Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of historical, cultural and architectural significance: a monument to the ingenuity of the British military engineers who designed it and to the skill, strength and endurance of the African slaves who built and maintained it.The Fortress, constructed intermittently between the 1690s and 1790s, is of singular importance as being the remains of a large, complete military community of the 18th century. As such, it is a veritable time capsule of international significance.

The prominent Citadel is one of the earliest and finest surviving examples of a new style of fortification known as the 'polygonal system'.

Brimstone Hill is nearly 800 feet high with steep and precipitous slopes which had to be tamed by the disciplines of engineering and architecture, and at the risk and probable loss of human lives. The walls of the structures are predominantly of stone, labouriously and skilfully fashioned from the hard volcanic rock of which the hill is composed. The mortar to cement the stones was produced on site from the limestone which covers much of the middle and lower slopes. The Fortress is virtually a man-made out growth of the natural hill.

The physical location of the Fortress presents attractive panoramic vistas of forested mountains, cultivated fields, the historical township of Sandy Point, and neighbouring Dutch, English and French islands across the Caribbean Sea. Visit www.brimstonehillfortress.org

The two earliest English forts at Old Road and Sandy Point Town (Hamilton Fort) were in poor condition and it was decided, "to build a big, strong fort on Cleverly's Hill, under Brimstone Hill. It was a suitable site, as ships were often becalmed beneath it, when making for Sandy Point Road. It was named after King Charles II, who gave £500 to assist the planters." (Manchester, p.19)

Charles Fort was a military post from 1670 until it was abandoned in 1854. Some forty years later in 1890 it was used as a Hansen Home (leper asylum). The Home was closed in 1996.