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Fort Scoveston is one of a ring of defensive fortifications constructed around the natural harbor of Milford Haven. The construction of the forts was first proposed by the 1860 Royal Commission into the defense of the United Kingdom, which was held in response to the perceived strength of the the French Navy. Milford may to modern eyes seem an unlikely place for an invasion of britain tucked away in the furthest corner of West Wales, but the last invasion of britain in 1797 actual occurred near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire. The natural harbor at Milford one of the best in the world, it would have been an ideal target for a naval invasion so it was considered worthy of defense. It was believed at the time that any invasion in Pembrokeshire would have begun with a landing further round the coast with Milford Haven as the first target to secure a landing place for further troops and base for navel vessels.

The original plans for the defense of Milford haven called for a Northern defensive line of six land forts to protect the northern approaches towards the haven. When the government reviewed the plans the entire defensive line was struck out of the plans but after further deliberation the works at Scoveston were reinstated to cover the likely approaches to the towns of Neyland and Milford Haven. Construction commenced under goverment contract in 1861 and was progressed under two further contracts awarded in 1862 and 1864. It was completed in April 1864 at a total cost of £45,462.

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Fort Scoveston is a hexagonal defensive work 130 yards in diameter, surrounded by a 36 foot wide escarpment (ditch). The couterscarp (outside edge) of the ditch was cut from the natural rock making entering and retreating from the ditch more difficult and The Escarp (inside edge) was constructed of smooth masonry 22 feet high. On top of the escarpment the fort was surrounded by a rampart (a steep bank of earth constructed from the earth excavated from the ditch), at the summit of the rampart a Chemin de ronde provided a firing step covering the escarpment and approaches to the fort. At each corner of the fort a single Caponier jutted out into the escarpment to provide flanking fire down its length and at the peek of the Hexagon a double Caponier provided flanking fire down each side of the longest stretch of escarpment. Outside of the escarpment land was cleared and landscaped to form a glacis a gentle slope clear of obstruction which would expose any force approaching the fort to fire from the rampart. The rear of the face of the firing positions was defended by a parados (bank of earth) and a large traverse was also erected across the length of the interior parade.

The fort was originally intended to be armed with 32 guns mounted on the rampart but these appear to have never been installed, The Royal Artillery and Royal Engineer's returns from 1886 and 1898 list no armament at Fort Scoveston. From the 1900's fortifications like Fort Scoveston began to lose their importance as defensive structures so it is unlikely that it would have been armed after 1898. There is also no evidence of gun mounts on the rampart although an expensive underground magazine was constructed for artillery ammunition. The single entrance to the fort was protected by a rolling bridge over the escarpment and a long stone lined tunnel dug through the rampart. Inside the fort bomb proof barracks accommodation was provided for a garrison of 128 constructed within the the rampart along with guard house within a smaller earth embankment near the forts gate. The Caponiers appear to have been fitted out for the use of machine guns with independent magazines constructed on their lower levels.

For most of its life Fort Scoveston served as barracks accommodation or was empty under the care of a single warden. All of the fortifications built as a result of the 1860 Royal Commission have come to be known as "Palmerston's Follies" named for the prime minister of the time Henry John Temple the 3rd Viscount Palmerston, who was a vocal advocate of their construction. Although the term is believed to have originated in press reports of the time because most newspaper owners were supporters of naval rearmament as Britain's first line of defense instead of expensive land forts. This term has been used more recently to describe the forts as an expensive failure because they never fired a shot in anger although they did have an important deterant effect.

During WWII the fort was called in to action for the first time serving as the war station for the 3/5th Battalion (TF) Welsh Regiment. The battalion was only to stay at the fort for a few days before moving on to a training facility at Hearson and then active service as the 4th Battalion Wels Regiment. As the war drew to its conclusion the fort went on to become a depot for the troops maintaining the extensive network of trenches and field works between Weare Point and Port Lion. A large number of huts were added to the parade ground and the land surrounding the forts expanding Scoveston into a large army camp. The troops stationed here belonged to the 9th Battalion of the Labour Corps which was a "Russian" company formed in 1918 as a result of the call up of Russian nationals living in Britain although other nationalities such as Ukrainians and Lithuanians were also drafted into its ranks. They were not trained for front line action so that they would not be a threat if they had decided to mutiny in the aftermath of the October revolution.

Following the end of the first world war the fort fell into disuse and was sold off to a local farmer in 1932 for £1,400. After the outbreak of the second world war the fort was requisitioned by the war department to serve as an Anti Aircraft battery and locals came to use the original barracks as an unofficial air raid shelter. Towards the end of the war Scoveston became a major storage and distribution hub for ammunition shipped in through Milford Haven in the build up to D Day. At the end of the war the fort was once again abandoned and handed back to the farmer who owned it, since then it has been disused and has become completely overgrown its hard to spot that the fort even exists under the thick undergrowth which now covers it.

A visit to Fort Scoveston is quite a surreal experience, I had driven past the site of the fort few times on the way to RNAD Milford and would never even of guessed it was there. The Fort today is completely overgrown and from a distance it just appears to be a small wood on the crest of a hill. When you are actually looking for the fort it becomes a little more obvious the fields surrounding it are gently sloping upward to wards the overgrown fort and is clearly recognisable as the glacis but only when your looking for it. Getting closer to the fort it is still impossible to spot under the thick bushes and trees. Eventually I came to the edge of the counterscarp and was looking down into the deep escarpment which surrounds the fort. I followed this round heading towards the main gate the rolling bridge over the escarpment has gone replaced with a stronger masonry bridge which could support the heavy trucks using it during the second world war. The bridge itself is also overgrown covered with moss and grasses, I carefully made my way across the bridge to wards the main gate which I could finally see emerging from the undergrowth which now covers the earth rampart.

The door to the fort is faced in rusted metal with the obligatory keep out warning painted across it. The door was fortunately unlocked so it was quietly pushed opened and I stepped through into the tunnel on the other side. As I stepped through the door I noticed how thick it was at least three or four inches, on the rear side of the door all the stud bolting was still in place along with heavy but graceful hinges and locking mechanism, it was the original gate.

The tunnel leading from the gate to the interior of the fort was a stone lined passage a little over 7ft tall gently sloping up towards the inner parade which is at a higher level to the ground outside the fort. As soon as I stepped out of the tunnel I realised just how overgrown the fort actually is, I had heard that the fort was overgrown before I arrived but had some how expected to find it relatively intact inside the overgrown banks that disguised it from the outside. So I was surprised to find large mature trees, prickly bushes and thick beds of brambles choking the interior parade, Just inside the gate the bomb proof guard house could just been seen through the vegetation. The guard house itself was made up of three interlinked arched tunnels dug into a protective bank of earth. Each archway was equipped with its own cast iron stove one of which was still in place and in perfect condition. Apart from the stove the guardhouse was completely empty so my companions and I made our way carefully through each room picking our path over the rotting floor boards, at least by making our way through the guard house we avoided battling our way through some of the undergrowth.

Once back outside the guard house I moved over to the South East corner of the fort where a small stone arch and stairway opened in the side of the rampart. It leads into another stone lined tunnel similar to the entrance tunnel which after a short distance ended with another stone stair way leading downwards deep within the rampart bank itself. The stairway lead out on to the top level of one a single caponier where another short passage led first to a small shooting gallery with gun placements opening out of the Escarp to provide flanking fire along the face of the Caponier, At the end of the gallery a small alcove was provided for the solider at the furthest placement so they could still get a full firing arc without being restricted by the gallery wall.

Beyond the flanking gallery a arched doorway lead out in to the caponier itself from out in the corridor the room seemed to be bathed in an unusual green light which was caused by a light shining in through a curtain of ivy and creepers hanging over the gun placements on the caponier’s two firing galleries. Back out in the passage way a second flight of stone steps led down to the lower level which was an almost identical layout to the first floor, but down on the lower flanking galley a small tunnel leads further into the rampart and ends at the caponier’s magazine where the ammunition for the guns in this part of the fort would have been stored. The storage part of the magazine is a small room which would have been protected by a fire proof door. At the far end of the magazine a small window opens out into a stone box lined with an iron top, the box would have held a lamp to illuminate the magazine sealed off from the room itself by a thick glass window which would have blocked any stray sparks from entering the magazine. Outside and to the left of the magazine a narrow passage which wraps around the back of the magazine providing access to refill the lamp within the lamp housing.

After leaving the South East caponier I attempted to work round the fort visiting the other’s but even with two companions wielding gardening sheers we couldn't’t make headway through the thick vegetation. After admitting defeat, a quick retreat back towards the centre of the fort lead to the slightly less over grown central parade. Here we passed the rusted frame of a world war two prefab hut close to the traverse that spread across the center of the parade. The traverse is little more than a earth bank provided to protect the backs of soldiers in one half of the fort from cross fire in the other and it like the much larger bank of therampart it has been colonised by trees and bushes, Half way along the traverse a stone lined cutting allows you to move through to the northern half of the fort. Once past the traverse I headed straight for the barracks accommodation, the barracks are very similar to the guard house buried like hobbit holes in the north rampart. They are identical to the arched rooms of the guard house but a little deeper and each of them has a small side room for a slop bucket latrine. The barracks rooms are arranged in a crescent around the northern rim of the rampart. In the center is the access tunnel to the Northern double Caponier on either side there are four barrack rooms and beyond those a single bath house lies at either end. The barrack rooms themselves are in a similar state to the guardhouse stripped out and empty apart form a few remains of their stoves and the odd clothing rack attached to the walls. The bath houses are of similar construction to the barracks rooms they are also buried into the rampart but instead of the arched ceilings these rooms are capped by large cast iron water tanks along the walls are the smashed remains of slate panels which have divided the room into separate cubicles.

I had a good look around each of the barrack rooms before heading up the rampart for a view out over the fort, a long battle through the vegetation brought us to the ruins of the a small building, two bread ovens in its wall and a slate water tank outside indicate this could have been the barracks cookhouse. beyond this and further up the rampart we discovered a small covered way which lead to another small room used for storing reserve ammunition for soldiers manning the ramparts.

The final stop made on the visit was the large double caponier, It was very similar to the single caponier visited earlier. It too was constructed on two levels jutting out into the escarpment, but as its name suggests was twice the size and provided three gun placements looking both ways down the escarpment with a pair of flaking gallery's on either side. Down on the lower level there was a similar small magazine but this one could be accessed from the top level via a ladder through a trapdoor as well as a heavy fireproofed door on the lower level which was still in place. On leaving the double caponier an attempt was made to reach the other three single caponiers but these efforts failed in the face of heavy undergrowth and we decided to leave the fort behind retracing our steps I made my way down the long entrance tunnel taking a good look at the heavy front gate before stepping through blinking in the sunlight and pulled it tight behind me.