Built by Caymanians around 1790 using local coral rock and limestone, Fort George is one of the oldest surviving historic sites in central George Town. The fort was designed to protect the settlement and harbour from the threat of attack by Spanish marauders from nearby Cuba, at a time when the waters surrounding the Cayman Islands could still be dangerous and unpredictable.
The small fort followed the style of English military batteries of the period. Its oval base measured approximately 57 feet by 38 feet, with eight openings designed for cannons and a mahogany gate on the landward side. Yet its defences appear to have been relatively modest. When Edward Corbet visited Grand Cayman in 1802 to report to the Governor of Jamaica, he recorded that Fort George had only three small guns rather than the eight its design could accommodate.
As the threat of attack faded, the fort became part of everyday life in George Town. By the early twentieth century, children from the nearby school played within its sand-covered enclosure beneath the shade of a large silk cotton tree.
During the Second World War, Fort George once again became part of Cayman’s defences. A lookout hut was built high in the branches of the silk cotton tree around 1943 and manned by members of the Home Guard. Equipped with binoculars and a field telephone, the post formed part of a network of coastal lookouts watching for enemy vessels and German submarines operating in Caribbean waters.
Fort George faced perhaps its greatest threat not during wartime, but in 1972. On 11 January, amid a dispute over development of the surrounding land, a bulldozer demolished most of the historic fort. Concerned Caymanians intervened, standing their ground in front of the remaining structure and preventing its complete destruction. Their actions helped save one of the few surviving links to George Town’s earliest history.
What remained of Fort George was donated to the newly established National Trust for the Cayman Islands in 1987 and protected for future generations. The site was officially dedicated as a historic site in 1992 and later underwent restoration and interpretation work, including the recreation of the wartime lookout post using surviving elements of the original structure.
Today, Fort George stands as both a reminder of Cayman’s early defences and an important milestone in the Islands’ heritage preservation movement. Its surviving walls tell two stories: one of Caymanians protecting their shores from threats arriving by sea, and another of a later generation stepping forward to protect the physical remains of their own history.
Did You Know?
- Fort George was built around 1790 to defend against Spanish privateers.
- The cannons were primarily used for signaling, not battle.
- It is one of the oldest standing structures in Grand Cayman.
- In the 1970s, concerned Caymanians stood in front of the ruins to stop further demolition.