Al Hayl Fort

Al Hayl sits in a wadi in the mountains inland from Fujairah, a two-storey fort and a separate watchtower on the spur above it, built around 1830 by the ruling family as a summer place and to control the route through the valley. The fort has palm-trunk ceilings and gypsum-decorated rooms; the tower is a short scramble higher and gives the view down the wadi. Little else is here, which is much of the appeal.

Background

Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamdan Al Sharqi built the fortified house in 1932, along with a mosque, a majlis and the watchtower, and it was his main home for about two decades. It is often called a summer house, yet he lived here until he moved to a new house built at Mirbah in 1958. Below the fort lies the old village of Al Hayl, where many buildings have been restored. Its people left in the late 1970s for a new village lower down the wadi, protected by the Al Hayl Dam. Lorimer recorded the place in 1908 as 'Hail', with about ten houses, and Umm Al Nar tombs and Iron Age petroglyphs show far older settlement.

Source: Wikipedia, "Al Hayl Fort"

What's there

• The two-storey fort - palm-trunk ceilings and decorated rooms in the wadi floor building.
• The watchtower - a separate round tower on the spur above.
• The wadi route - the valley the fort was built to watch.
• The gypsum decoration - carved plaster surviving in the interior.

When to go

November to March; the wadi is very hot from May onwards. Late afternoon light suits the stonework. Rain can make the track impassable.

Things to know

Access is on a graded track that ordinary cars can manage in dry weather but not after rain. There is no interpretation, no facilities and often no one on site. The scramble to the tower is loose underfoot.

Nearby

Fujairah Fort is northeast, and Masafi is northwest.

Key facts