Fishguard Fort
Fishguard Fort, also known as the Last Invasion Fort or the Royal Oak Fort, occupies a commanding position on the headland overlooking Fishguard Harbour on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales. Perched above the town of Fishguard at the coordinates given, this small but historically resonant fortification is one of the most fascinating military sites in Wales, notable above all else for its direct connection to what is officially recorded as the last invasion of mainland Britain — a remarkable episode in 1797 that ended in farce rather than conquest. The fort is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and draws visitors not only for its military heritage but for the sweeping panoramic views it commands over the harbour, Fishguard Bay, and the wild Irish Sea stretching westward.
The fort's origins lie in the late eighteenth century, when Britain was deeply anxious about French revolutionary ambitions and the threat of coastal raids. The existing battery at this headland was reinforced in the years leading up to 1797, precisely because Fishguard's harbour made it a strategically plausible landing site. The guns installed here were intended to deter or repel exactly the kind of attack that eventually came, though the fort's role in the actual invasion was decidedly more symbolic than decisive. On 22 February 1797, a French expeditionary force of roughly 1,400 men — known as La Légion Noire, the Black Legion, so called because their uniforms were partly fashioned from dyed British redcoat cloth captured in earlier campaigns — landed not at Fishguard itself but at Carregwastad Point, a few miles to the west. The fort's guns reportedly fired a salvo that persuaded the French commander, the Irish-American William Tate, to steer his ships clear of the main harbour and seek a more undefended landing spot.
The invasion itself collapsed within two days, and the story of its failure has become one of the most colourful in Welsh history. The French troops, many of whom were convicts and irregulars rather than disciplined soldiers, quickly dispersed to plunder local farmhouses for food and wine. Welsh folklore attributes much of the credit for their surrender to Jemima Nicholas, a local cobbler's wife who allegedly rounded up a dozen French soldiers single-handedly using nothing more than a pitchfork, and to a more famous legend involving Welsh women in their traditional red cloaks and tall black hats being mistaken by the demoralised and intoxicated French troops for a regiment of British redcoats massing on the hillside. Whether entirely accurate or not, the story captures the humiliating nature of the capitulation, which took place at the Royal Oak inn in Fishguard town square. The surrender document signed there — sometimes called the Treaty of Fishguard — is preserved locally, and the town's connection to this event remains a source of considerable local pride.
The fort itself today is a modest but evocative structure. The remains consist primarily of earthwork ramparts, a stone battery wall, and the emplacements where the cannon once sat, with some of the original guns or replica pieces still present to give a sense of scale and purpose. The stonework is weathered and moss-edged, the kind of patina that comes from over two centuries of Atlantic weather, and the earthen banks have softened into the landscape in a way that feels organic and ancient. Standing within the battery on a clear day, the views are extraordinary — Fishguard's lower harbour with its fishing boats and the ferry terminal for Rosslare in Ireland, the wide arc of the bay curving toward Strumble Head to the north-west, and on fine days the dark silhouette of the Wicklow Hills across the water. The wind here can be ferocious and salt-laden, and gulls wheel constantly overhead, their cries mixing with the sound of the sea below.
The surrounding area is rich in things to explore. The Pembrokeshire Coast Path passes nearby, offering walkers access to some of the most dramatic clifftop scenery in Britain. The town of Fishguard itself — split between the upper town and the lower harbour area known as Lower Town — has considerable charm, with Lower Town having served as the filming location for the 1971 film version of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood. The Royal Oak pub in the market square remains a focal point of the invasion story, displaying memorabilia and the names of the signatories to the surrender. Goodwick, the village directly adjoining the harbour and ferry terminal, is just a short walk away. The broader north Pembrokeshire coast takes in Strumble Head lighthouse and Carregwastad Point, where a memorial stone marks the exact landing site of the French forces.
For visitors, the fort is freely accessible at all reasonable times, sitting on open ground above the town without a formal entrance fee or ticketed access. The easiest approach is on foot from Fishguard town centre, following Castle Hill or the paths that lead up the headland, though the terrain involves some slope and the surface can be uneven. There is limited parking nearby. The site is not managed by a major heritage body with a staffed visitor centre on site, so visitors should come prepared with their own background knowledge or pick up materials from the local tourist information resources in the town. Spring and early summer are particularly rewarding times to visit, when the wildflowers are in bloom along the clifftops and the light over the bay can be spectacular in the long Welsh evenings. That said, the fort has a certain austere romance even in winter grey, when the wind and the emptiness of the headland make the imaginative leap back to February 1797 considerably easier.
One of the more poignant footnotes to the fort's history is that despite being associated with the prevention of an invasion, it was never truly tested in earnest — the French, deterred by a single volley, simply went around it. In a sense, the fort succeeded completely by doing almost nothing, which gives it an unusual place in military history. There is also a touching local tradition that Jemima Nicholas, whose grave can be visited in St Mary's churchyard in Fishguard, has become something of a folk heroine for the whole of Wales, her pitchfork exploit commemorated in a remarkable tapestry — made in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry — which was created by local embroiderers to mark the bicentenary of the invasion in 1997. The tapestry, which tells the full story of the Last Invasion in vivid needlework panels, is displayed at the town library and is well worth seeking out as a companion to any visit to the fort itself.