Windmill Hill (Gibraltar)
Windmill Hill or Windmill Hill Flats is one of a pair of
Military usage
The plateau has had military importance. It was fortified in the 1770s as part of the improvement schemes of Chief Engineer Colonel
A series of
The plateau is the site of Lathbury Barracks, constructed in the early 1960s[2] and used until 1991 by the British Army; it is now owned by the Government of Gibraltar.[7] A NATO communications centre was also built there in the 1970s.[2] The Royal Gibraltar Regiment's Buffadero Training Centre is situated near the barracks and is used by British Army units for a variety of training purposes, including practicing fighting in built-up areas (FIBUA) in a mock-up village. The terrain in the vicinity is similar to that of parts of Afghanistan, consisting of rocky ground covered with thickets of vegetation and shrubbery. This similarity has been used for exercises to prepare British troops for deployment in support of the British war effort in Afghanistan.[8]
Windmill Hill Signal Station remains at the location and utilised by the Royal Navy.[9]
Civilian usage
Windmill Hill lies some way from the main area of settlement in Gibraltar, though in the late 18th century the ruins of Moorish buildings – which would have been at least 350 years old by that time – were still visible on the plateau.[10] The Jewish community of Gibraltar established a cemetery there, known as the Jews' Gate Cemetery, in a "very airy and elevated situation."[11]
In 2010, the Government of Gibraltar established a prison there called HM Prison Windmill Hill.[12] The construction of a civil prison on Windmill Hill had been proposed as long ago as 1854, when prisoners were being incarcerated in the Moorish Castle – a situation which was described as "defective in many points" in an 1867 report but persisted until 2010.[13] The Detention Barracks, a military prison, stood on Windmill Hill for many years and was described by the English traveller Reginald Fowler as "clean, admirably arranged, and the discipline very strict" when he saw it in 1854.[14] It was demolished in 1962.[15]
The government also proposed in 2009 to build a new power station for Gibraltar on the site of the former barracks' parade ground.[16] This raised concerns about the impact on the area's rich variety of wildlife.[17] In March 2012 the newly elected Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party/Liberal alliance government announced that it would not be proceeding with the power station plans on this site.[18]
Wildlife and caves
The Windmill Hill area is one of the most important wildlife habitats in Gibraltar and is a
Perhaps because of its prominence as the only vegetated area of the southern tip of Gibraltar, Windmill Hill attracts many species of migrating birds which may see it as a focal point on trans-Saharan journeys.[2] It is home to Gibraltar's national bird, the Barbary partridge (Alectoris barbara), which nests in the plateau's open habitat.[17] It is an important waypoint on the route that songbirds take in migrating between Europe and Africa, and is often their first European landfall on crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. Bats also hunt there, feeding on insects.[17]
A number of
References
- ^ a b Rose, Mather & Perez, p. 239
- ^ a b c d e Cortés, J.E. (1996). "Windmill Hill Flats: a good view of migration across the Straits of Gibraltar" (PDF). Almoraima (15): 163–184.
- ^ Drinkwater, p. 31
- ^ Drinkwater, p. 30
- ^ Rose (2001), p. X
- ^ Fa & Finlayson, p. 8
- ^ Gold, p. 150
- ^ Carr, Ian (December 2008). "Gibraltar's tunnel vision". Defence Focus. Ministry of Defence (UK).
- ^ "FOI(A) regarding British Forces Gibraltar" (PDF). What do they know?. 5 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
- ^ Drinkwater, p. 34
- ^ Martin, p. 96
- ^ "Prison Order 2010" (PDF). Government of Gibraltar. 19 August 2010. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
- ^ Colonial Office, pp. 34, 41
- ^ Fowler, p. 59
- ^ a b "Captain Frederick Brome and Genista I Cave, Gibraltar". Gibraltar Museum Caving Unit. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
- ^ Proposed New Power Station Lathbury Barracks Gibraltar, Government of Gibraltar, February 2009
- ^ a b c d "Their Final Spring? Power Station Debate Opens" (PDF). Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society. 5 May 2008.
- ^ "No power station at Lathbury Barracks". Vox. 15 March 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
- ^ Linares, Leslie L. "Plant Life". Government of Gibraltar. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
Bibliography
- Colonial Office (1867). Prison Discipline: Digest and Summary of Answers from Colonial Governors to Circular Despatches Sent Out by the Secretary of State on the 16th and 17th January 1867. London: Colonial Office.
- Drinkwater, John (1786). A History of the Late Siege of Gibraltar, by John Drinkwater. London. OCLC 631054.
- Fa, Darren; ISBN 1-84603-016-1.
- Fowler, Reginald (1854). Hither and Thither. London: Frederick R. Daldy.
- Gold, Peter (2012). Gibraltar: British or Spanish?. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781134276745.
- Martin, Robert Montgomery (1837). History of the British possessions in the Mediterranean: volume 5, comprising Gibraltar, Malta, Gozo, and the Ionian islands. Whittaker & co.
- Rose, Edward P.F. (2001). "Military Engineering on the Rock of Gibraltar and its Geoenvironmental Legacy". In Ehlen, Judy; Harmon, Russell S. (eds.). The Environmental Legacy of Military Operations. ISBN 0-8137-4114-9.
- Rose, Edward P.F.; Mather, John D.; Perez, Manuel (2004). "British attempts to develop groundwater and water supply on Gibraltar 1800–1985". In Mather, John D. (ed.). 200 years of British hydrogeology. London: Geological Society. ISBN 9781862391550.