# Efford Fort / Fort Efford, Plymouth, February 2009



## GeorgieKirrin (Feb 20, 2009)

We had a mooch around Efford Fort recently. It was our first Urbexing expedition (unless you count teenage adventures) and quite an easy one too - apart from the mud - so it was a good place to lose our ‘urbexing-virginity’...

Efford Fort - for those not familiar with it - is another of Lord Palmerston's follies. It was built circa 1860 and formed part of the north east line of Plymouth's land defences, designed to protect the area from potential French invasion. Later, the area was heavily occupied by a vast American army during the preparations for D-Day. 

It's now privately owned - Anderton and Rowlands fairground store some of their stuff up there and others live onsite therefore direct access to the interior of the fort is not possible. However, photos below show the casement tunnels and gun emplacements on the eastern side. Oh, and mucho evidence of chav…

Found this against the wall of the fort on our initial scout around - looks like a water sluice. Maybe held a reservoir behind..?






















Gun Emplacement:






Custard Cream anyone..?











This staircase used to lead directly up into the interior of the fort. The top is now cemented shut.






Haven't been able to explore this area yet. The floor, as you can see has fallen through but I understand it was originally used for ammunition storage.






One of the many many many butane cannisters lying about...


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## kernowexpeditionary (Feb 20, 2009)

nice one, been meaning to do this one for a while


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## GeorgieKirrin (Feb 20, 2009)

kernowexpeditionary said:


> nice one, been meaning to do this one for a while



It's very accessible at the mo (can I say that?) - hence the custard cream picnick - but hasn't been for ages.


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## Foxylady (Feb 21, 2009)

Ooh, that looks good. Love the sluice...cool find.


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## graybags (Feb 21, 2009)

*Efford*

My boss is related to the Rowlands, I'm working on a visit soon

If you look over on 28dl you may find what the tealights were used for 

G


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## GeorgieKirrin (Feb 21, 2009)

graybags said:


> My boss is related to the Rowlands, I'm working on a visit soon
> 
> If you look over on 28dl you may find what the tealights were used for
> 
> G



WOW! - I'm inspired and very much humbled. What awesome pics. Ooooo I'm so going to rip that idea! (erm, I mean, I like did it first.... ages ago... really...)


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## theterrorwheel (Feb 21, 2009)

awesome, great looking explore, woodland fort is very similar to that one, no sure if its got any access though at the moment, infact maybe it needs a new visit.


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## wingman (Aug 23, 2009)

Hiya, I remember going down the 'spirals' when I was about 13. 36 now, so that was a long time ago! Walked along that old corridor to the steps at the end. If you went up the steps, you ended up in the yard that the gypsies lived in. If you went down, you got to the rooms with the beams in them. I remember climbing across those beams! The worst part of the whole trip was climbing up a bank with a huge drop to the housing estate below, that was not fun!!


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## Urban Mole (Aug 23, 2009)

Nice, yet another Plymouth defence, there cant be many more, can there? 
Looks good all the same.
As for the cemented shut but, Im sure its not as good as you think 

Id just like to add, I think the ammo store you mention is wrong, ammo is not usually stored on a wooden floor with wooden beams, if you know what I mean


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