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Queen Alexandra Dock Harbour Defence Gun Emplacement is a post-medieval gun house located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM618. The structure was built to defend a strategic dock facility against naval attack during a period when coastal fortifications were strengthened across Britain. Gun houses of this type typically featured robust masonry construction designed to withstand cannon fire and provide protected positions for artillery.
The emplacement sits upon Middle Triassic claystone bedrock, a geology that influenced both construction methods and the site's suitability for fortification. The underlying strata of claystone with interbedded siltstone and sandstone provided a stable foundation for the substantial structures required to support heavy guns and the stresses of repeated firing. This bedrock type is characteristic of the geological formations underlying many Welsh coastal areas that were developed industrially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
As a harbour defence installation, the gun house represents the significant investment made by Britain to protect its dock infrastructure during periods of international tension. Such emplacements were typically positioned to command approaches to vital commercial and strategic harbours, integrating into broader networks of coastal defence that evolved as naval technology advanced throughout the modern period.
Queen Alexandra Dock Harbour Defence Gun Emplacement is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM618. View the official record →
Queen Alexandra Dock Harbour Defence Gun Emplacement is a post-medieval gun house located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM618.
Queen Alexandra Dock Harbour Defence Gun Emplacement dates from the post medieval/modern period, and is classified as a gun house. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Queen Alexandra Dock Harbour Defence Gun Emplacement is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is GM618.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cogan Deserted Medieval Village (4.1 km), Dinas Powis Castle (4.7 km), Romano-British Farmstead, Dinas Powys Common (5.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Queen Alexandra Dock Harbour Defence Gun Emplacement's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Queen Alexandra Dock Harbour Defence Gun Emplacement stands on Middle Triassic claystone, bedrock that formed in the Late Triassic. The rock here is major:{claystone}, Minor{siltstone,sandstone,gypsum}.