Summarised from report:

The western outworks consisted of an irregular polygonal work of ditch and rampart and was designed to provide a more complete and effective defence of the western approaches to the fortress. The construction of the Western Outworks was in full progress by February 1860, the ditches and ramparts were complete by 1871 and the barracks were added in the southern half of the area in the late Victorian Period.

Its ditch sprang from and returned to the main ditch of the Citadel. Access between the Citadel and the Western Outwork was provided principally by a new bridge, via the West Sally Port. The ditch incorporated powerful flank defences in the form of a Double Caponier and, behind the scarp revetments, two sets of defensible casemated barracks. The rampart followed a different course to
the ditch such that it was shaped to include a west bastion overlooking the Double Caponier and two demi-bastions, the North and South Demi-Bastions. While the ditch was secured by its flanking casemates, the three bastions and the rampart connecting them commanded the longer approaches to the fortress from the west. Despite this, there is no evidence of fixed artillery; this remained in the Citadel and from the outset it may have been intended to deploy mobile artillery in the Western Outwork if required. (1)

Further information about the historical development of the Western Outworks is available within the Built Heritage Conservation Framework. (2)

Detail of the Western Outworks appears on a plan dating to 1871 which shows all of the works which were undertaken under the reccomendations of the Royal Commission. (3)

<1> English Heritage, 2004, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent: Report No. 2: The Citadel (Unpublished document). SKE17690.

<2> Liv Gibbs, 2012, Built Heritage Conservation Framework for Dover Western Heights (Unpublished document). SKE17708.

<3> Captain H S Palmer (?), 1871, War Department OS 1:2500 Sheet LXVIII.15, revision of 1871, annotated with positions of magazines in the Citadel in 1877 (Map). SKE51524.

<4> Kent Defence Research Group, c. 1993, Kent Defence Research Group 'Fort Logs' (Unpublished document). SKE52251.