For our last full day we had booked a morning small bus tour that covered some areas we had not yet visited such as Europa Point which is the most southerly part of the Rock.
The lighthouse at Europa Point
From Europa Point the northern coast of Africa can be seen along with the coast of the Spanish mainland. Yet again the military strategic importance of Gibraltar can be seen here with the views across the strait and Harding’s Battery on the shoreline with the gun pointing across the strait.
Harding’s Battery was named after Sir George Harding, Chief Engineer of the British Army in 1844. It was originally armed with two 24-pounder cannons which were changed to two 32-pounders in 1863. In 1868 Colonel WFD Jervois carried out a survey of Gibraltar’s fortifications and batteries which resulted in several batteries being modified or rebuilt to accommodate the heavy Rifle Muzzle Loading (RML) guns. The original intention was to arm Harding’s Battery with a 9 inch RML on a Moncrieff disappearing mounting but this never occurred. In March 1877 work commenced to reconstruct the battery to take a 12.5inch RML on a barbette mounting which was completed in 1878. The current gun emplacement is the one constructed for the RML gun with the chamber underneath being the ammunition magazine.
We then moved on into the Nature Reserve visiting St Michael’s Cave for a second time and then the Ape’s Den, one of Gibraltar’s most iconic attractions.
A resident of Ape’s Den
Ape’s Den was the last stop on our small bus tour so we were dropped off near the WWII Tunnels for a short walk to the Great Siege Tunnels. Hopefully these will have reopened after being closed the day before. We were in luck.
The tunnelling of the Great Siege Tunnels was started in 1782 during the Great Siege (1779 to 1783) with a view of getting guns to a projection, called the Notch, on the precipitous northern face of the Rock. Sergeant Major Ince, one of the Company of Military Artificers (the forerunners to the Royal Engineers) suggested this could be done by tunnelling. Permission was granted with the tunnellers relying on brute strength, sledgehammers, crowbars and blasting with gunpowder. In five weeks, 18 men had driven a tunnel 8 feet square by 82 feet long into the Rock. It is interesting to compare this to the fully mechanised tunnelling during WWII where the tunnellers advanced 180 feet in a week.
Originally there was no intention of mounting guns in the tunnels but as fumes from the blasting was suffocating the miners, a vent was opened to let air in. It was then realised what a good embrasure this would make for a gun before reaching the goal of putting a gun on the Notch. Other embrasures were cut and by the time the Siege ended in 1783 the tunnels were 370 feet long and had four guns mounted. Tunnelling did not finish with the end of the Siege and two other galleries called Kings and Queen Lines were excavated lower down the north face of the Rock. When the Notch was eventually reached, a large chamber was excavated called St George’s Hall where a battery of seven guns was installed.
St George’s Hall
During WWII the tunnel was extended through to the other side of the Rock with the long straight extension being called the Holyland Tunnel.
The Holyland Tunnel
The Mediterranean Sea from the end of the Holyland Tunnel
After the Great Siege Tunnels we walked down to the town and made our way to our hotel for our farewell dinner before our flight home the next day.
In summary, Gibraltar is a good place for a short break for a few days particularly if you are interested in history and don’t mind a bit of steep walking.
No room for error on the Gibraltar runway
Sunset in Gibraltar
Copyright: Words and Photos John Cruse 2024