The Drop Redoubt was a key element of the Western Heights fortifications. Occupying the eastern end of the ridge and dominating the town, port and seaward approaches, it is essentially a pentagonal fort designed to control the land front as a self-defensible work but was also linked to the linear defences that guarded the Heights as a whole. The major phase of construction, during the war with France, was between 1804 and 1816, although work had begun from c1782. Works on the enclosing rampart and ditch were the first to be undertaken at the Drop Redoubt and it is likely that between 1787 and 1804 some work had taken place to construct the eastern redoubt - even if it remained unfinished.

The rampart is partly cut and shaped out of the chalk but its upper surfaces are made with redeposited soil and chalk, carefully scarped and turfed into an even slope, rising steeply above the curtain wall to the crown of the rampart, and designed to absorb incoming fire. The crown is pierced by several gun embrasures and disturbed by numerous slit trenches and weapons pits. (1)

<1> English Heritage, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 3 The Drop Redoubt: A 19th-Century Artillery Fortification (Unpublished document). SKE13677.