Steps lead up from the verandah and parade to the upper battery that consisted of five large open gun emplacements with expense magazines between.

The rear, or gorge, of the fort is closed by a two-storey barrack block that was originally occupied by the officers.

The entrance to the fort through the centre of the barrack block opens onto the central parade.

[1] The first fortifications on Gilkicker Point were constructed as an auxiliary battery to Fort Monckton and consisted of an earthen rampart for eleven guns firing through embrasures cut through the parapets.

The front faces were protected by a ditch which was flanked by musketry caponiers at the angles.

[2] The battery was heavily criticised by James Fergusson, who eventually became the Treasury representative on the Royal Commission in to the defences of the United Kingdom, set up in 1859.

In his paper ‘The Peril of Portsmouth’[3] he stated that the battery was in danger of collapse under the weight of its own guns and could easily be captured by a small force landing in the bay as it could offer little resistance.

The current Fort Gilkicker was constructed between the years 1863 and 1869 at Stokes Bay, Gosport.

Its purpose was to defend the deep water anchorage at Spithead and to protect the western approach to Portsmouth harbour.

The upper battery was to be completely remodelled to take two of the latest 9.2-inch BL Mark X guns on barbette V mountings with two 6-inch BL Mark VII guns on CPII mountings for closer range support.

[9] As part of this work the whole of the exterior granite wall of the fort was covered with earth and the front ditch filed to protect the shell and cartridge stores.

The 6-inch guns at Gilkicker and at No.2 battery of the Stokes Bay Lines were also superfluous and ineffective.

The barrack block was altered 1908-1910 by converting it to married quarters for Royal Engineers at nearby Fort Monckton.

In 1956 Coast Defence was abolished and the fort was then used by the Ministry of Public Building and Works as a plumbers workshop.

In November 1986 Hampshire County Council bought the fort, but not its surrounding earth bank.

[15][16] On 28 July 2022, it was sold to developers for £1.38 million, with plans to turn it into 26 homes - 22 in the former gun emplacements and 4 larger ones in the barrack block.

An urban explorer took a series of photographs of the interior in 2016, demonstrating the scale of the damage.