Rosia Bay

Location

Last Visited: 2011 View Google Map, Geocoding, Google Earth pushpin, what3words, etc.

Parsons Lodge Battery sits on a promontory overlooking Rosia Bay that has long been strategically important.

The name, however does not appear in writing until 1761, and appears to be an irreverent reference to the hermitage and chapel of St John the Green, situated immediately landward of the rock.

In 1333 the Moors built a wall round the site which the Spanish improved in 1627. The British took over the site, and by 1720 the battery housed two 18 pound guns and two 12 pounders. It continued to be developed over the years, particularly, of course, during the Second World War.

It is now managed by the Gibraltar Museum and includes a Field Centre. It is not open to the general public.

Location

Last Visited: 2011 View Google Map, Geocoding, Google Earth pushpin, what3words, etc.

The old HM Victualling Yard is in desperate need of some tender loving care. Part of the site has been lost to redevelopment and the rest is home to some small industrial units. It is not open to the public.

It was build between 1799 and 1812 for the Navy by a local contractor, John Maria Boschetti, on a site suggested by John Jervis, Lord St Vincent, Admiral in Charge of the Mediterranean Fleet.

He lived in a house in Rosia Bay in 1799 whilst staying ashore through ill health. He chose the site as it had access to Rosia Bay and was protected from the seaward gunfire by the Parsons Lodge Battery. It was also out of range of the enemy guns at the North Front.

Location

Last Visited: 2011 View Google Map, Geocoding, Google Earth pushpin, what3words, etc.

The Royal Navy Dockyard in Gibraltar was built at the end of the 19th century and incorporates three large graving docks.

Number 3 dock, the smallest, was the first to open in 1904 and was named after King Edward VII. Queen Alexandra named Number 2 dock after herself, and Number 1 dock, the largest, was called the Prince and Princess of Wales dock in honour of the future King George V and Queen Mary.

It remained a naval dockyard until 1982, when cut-backs in the fleet made it redundant.

Its subsequent history has been troubled and it has changed hands a number of times. It was the subject of a management buy out in 2006 and renamed Gibdock in 2009.

There is still a small Royal Navy presence on the Rock that provides a maintenance capability, and British and US nuclear submarines frequently visit Gibraltar.