Crownhill Fort is a Royal Commission Fort built in the 1860s in Crownhill as part of Lord Palmerston's ring of land defences for Plymouth. Restored by the Landmark Trust, it is now home to several small businesses, museums, exhibitions and a holiday apartment sleeping up to eight people. The Fort is open to the public on the last Friday of each month and hosts tours for local schools and societies at other times. History of the fort Crownhill Fort was designed by Captain Edmund Frederick Du Cane as one of Lord Palmerston's last forts and was the largest of the forts of Plymouth's North Eastern defences, whose purpose was to defend the Royal Dockyard at Devonport from the possibility of a French attack, under the leadership of Napoleon III. Construction began in April 1863, with Crownhill Fort being at the cutting edge of fortress design, although it does conform to the standard polygonal design of its contemporaries. It was built 400 metres in front of the defensive line, now incorporated into the east-west Crownhill Road, in an exposed position on a natural outcrop. Crownhill Fort is designed for all round defence, with each of its seven sides having massive ramparts and being surrounded by a deep ditch. All sides were also protected by gunfire, with the fort having around 350 built-in rifle loopholes. It was designed for an armament of 32 guns on the ramparts and 6 mortars sited in two mortar pits to the south west and north west of the Parade Ground. A year later, in 1864, Russian commander General Todleben was shown the building works, and he complimented them. In 1866, after a strike, George Baker, the building contractor, went bankrupt and so the work was finished by the Royal Engineers who would become Crownhill Fort's first occupants. The total cost of the construction was £76,409; a large sum at the time, but much less costly than other Palmerston forts. In 1881, the Director of Artillery and Stores recommended that two forts, Fort Widley in Portsmouth and Crownhill Fort, be armed with complete peacetime armaments. None of the original armament survives but The Landmark Trust has reinstated several artillery pieces similar to those that would have occupied Forts of this kind. Due to continual advancement in weaponry and warfare many Victorian forts were abandoned by the army. Crownhill Fort remained an MOD site until 1986 and was