Part of an extensive scheme known as Palmerston Forts, after the prime minister who championed the scheme, it was built to defend the landward approaches to the east of Plymouth, as an element of the plan for the defence of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport.

It is 165 feet above sea level, between Jennycliffe Bay and Hooe Lake.

Designed by Captain (later Maj General) Edmund Frederick Du Cane,[1] it was built by George Roach and Company, who also built Staddon Fort.

It was built as a five sided polygonal fort, surrounded by a dry ditch.

[4] By the early 1900s the fort had become obsolete as a defensive position and was disarmed in 1904.