Brean Down Fort

Brean Down Fort is a Victorian Palmerston Fort built 18 m above sea level on the Brean Down headland in Somerset, constructed between 1864 and 1871 to defend the Bristol Channel approaches to Bristol and Cardiff. Armed with seven 7-inch guns from Woolwich, it was garrisoned by 50 Royal Artillery personnel. The fort never saw combat. In 1897, Guglielmo Marconi used the site to set a new distance record of 14 km for wireless transmission over open sea. Its active service ended when the No. 3 magazine containing 3 tons of gunpowder exploded on 6 July 1900. Restored by the National Trust from 2002, it is now open to the public.