On Sunday morning, when most of us were tucked up in bed, after checking the tides would be on their side, an urban exploration group made the walk across the shingle beach at St Helens to reach the Palmerston Fort.
Many of you will have done the same at some point over the years during low tide, but how many of you have been inside?
We suspect the answer would be not many, if any, which is why this video created by the explorers is such a great sight.
Be taken on a (spooky) journey
The guys shooting the video had this to add,
St Helens Sea Fort, silhouetted against the Portsmouth skyline has been a symbol of mystery since its decommission in the late 1950s.
Few people have seen the current state of the fort and the remaining artifacts of its previous uses – our aim was to explore and document the forts internals.
Built between 1867 and 1880 St Helens was one of 4 sea forts constructed to protect the naval dockyards at Portsmouth and related anchorages off the Isle of Wight from the perceived threat of a French invasion.
In the video you can see the tracks for a 38 ton gun behind an armoured shield, the moving turntables and gear workings on which the 2 18 ton guns stood and, on the lower floor, a maze of semi flooded tunnels which made up the shell and cartridge stores for the guns.
Sit back and be taken on a four minute journey to and inside St Helen Fort.
