# St Catherine's Fort, Tenby (Permission visit).



## clay_9 (Mar 1, 2017)

This place has always been very special to me. I have been visiting Tenby all of my life, literally my earliest memory is of running through the main hall when I was about 3 years old. This would have been in the early 80’s when it was briefly open to the public.

A Palmerston Fort completed in 1870, it’s had a colourful history. After seeing no significant military use it was sold to a wealthy local family in 1907, the Windsor Richards. It was garrisoned during both World Wars, later sold off only to become a Zoo in the 70’s. 

Since then it has laid mostly derelict until May 2015 when the Tenby Island Project had permission to open the island and Fort to the public. They cleared and made safe the Fort and the main hall of the Fort was recently opened to visitors. That was until August 2016 when planning and future direction issues saw the Fort close to the public once again.

Recently it was used as the 'Sherrinford' location for the last episode of the most recent series of BBC's Sherlock.

The Tenby Island project is no more, but the current owners have recently amended their proposals and planning documents and have just had initial approval to re-open to the public once again, maybe in Easter 2017.

I have had great favour with the caretaker of the Island and had opportunity to go there on multiple occasions to take pictures and video. I have produced a short 1 minute documentary about the Fort which I’d like to share with you all. For full disclosure, the video is my entry for a competition to win a Sony camera. But it’s interesting nonetheless and I hope you enjoy it as an accompaniment to the pictures. The competition shortlisting is based on youtube likes, so please if you enjoyed it, give it a like and share it if you can.

Video: https://youtu.be/KElem1q96qY

Thanks all.

The Island and Fort





The Main entrance




The Forts magazine




Main hall




Bath which has seen better days!




Lower tunnels




Some sort of burner in the generator room.




Electric box in the generator room




One of the smaller fireplaces in the main hall.


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## HughieD (Mar 1, 2017)

Fantastic stuff. Doesn't look like you were going to get in there on a non-permission visit!


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## clay_9 (Mar 1, 2017)

Yes of course, for me it was important to do it properly. I built a good relationship with the caretaker of the island over the last year. He has been fantastic and given me a lot of grace to do the filming I needed.


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## krela (Mar 1, 2017)

Looks good, I hope you have success with your video. It's a great location and I hope something happens to it soon.


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## smiler (Mar 1, 2017)

Nicely Done, Thanks


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## Dirus_Strictus (Mar 1, 2017)

krela;339435 It's a great location and I hope something happens to it soon.[/QUOTE said:


> Sadly people have being saying that for ages, and certainly since 1962 when I first got to see the place. Having friends and relatives in the town back then, made wandering around the place rather easy. Problems have always been the same - money, barn pot ideas and people just wandering all over the place. I always found the 'zoo' a very depressing and dismal place. And now in this day and age, stupid H & S requirements will no doubt raise their heads over the parapet!


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## clay_9 (Mar 1, 2017)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> Sadly people have being saying that for ages, and certainly since 1962 when I first got to see the place. Having friends and relatives in the town back then, made wandering around the place rather easy. Problems have always been the same - money, barn pot ideas and people just wandering all over the place. I always found the 'zoo' a very depressing and dismal place. And now in this day and age, stupid H & S requirements will no doubt raise their heads over the parapet!



The re-submitted planning proposal for change of use has just been accepted by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. So the future is actually quite bright for re-opening to the public. They are hoping to open for the Easter holidays.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Mar 1, 2017)

Let's hope all goes well! Thanks for the update.


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