Fort Louis

Fort Louis has watched Marigot's bay since 1789 - built to guard the port's warehouses from raiders, its ramparts and battery walls now standing in picturesque semi-ruin at the stair-path's top, ten sweaty minutes from the market quarter. The climb's arithmetic is generous: the French side's best panorama - Marigot's rooftops and lagoon, Simpson Bay's superyachts, Anguilla floating on the channel - for a free quarter-hour's effort, with the morning market below timing the classic combination: produce and accras first, ramparts after, the bay's blues doing the finale. Gun batteries had guarded the hill since the 1760s, but the fort itself followed in 1789, built under governor Jean-Sébastien de Durat to protect the salt and sugar warehouses at Marigot below.

History

By 1765 cannon batteries guarded Marigot's harbour from Pointe Bluff, Round Hill and Marigot Hill, and in 1789 Jean-Sébastien de Durat built the fort, at first in wood, on the Marigot Hill battery to protect the warehouses of coffee, salt, rum and sugar below. It had barracks for 54 troops and was abandoned in 1851 (Wikipedia, Fort Louis (Saint Martin)).

What's there

• The 1789 ramparts - the battery in picturesque semi-ruin.
• The harbour panorama - Marigot, lagoon and Anguilla's channel.
• The market pairing - accras below, views above.
• The sunset angle - the bay's evening performance.

When to go

December to May with the season; mornings pair the market, evenings the sunset. The path asks water either way.

Things to know

Ruins are unrestored and edges casual - footing sense applies; the visit is short and the view does all the heavy lifting.

Nearby

Marigot's market and waterfront, and the lagoon's marinas.

Key facts