Travelling up to heaven

Trinidad, the southern-most island in the Caribbean, lies only seven miles east of Venezuela, to which it was once joined, many moons ago. And on a clear day, you can just make out the Venezuelan mountaintops if you peer out from the highest point of the island, Fort George.

Situated 1100 feet above Port-of-Spain, Fort George was built back in 1804 as part of a group of fortifications to protect the island against the French Caribbean fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. It was constructed under the command of the British Governor, Brigadier Thomas Hislop, and was the major defensive position of the island.

The fort never actually experienced any military action, but at the prospect of war, local merchants would hide their valuables up there in the safe knowledge that no intruder would get their thieving mitts on them. To be fair, making it anywhere near the place would have been near impossible. Even Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, heroes of the Second World War film, Where Eagles Dare, would have struggled.

The fort was considered to be impregnable, and standing so high and dominant, it's not difficult to see why. Whereas once it was only accessible by hikers, you can now take the more scenic - and sensible - route by car, which winds up the mountainside, making you feel you're going up a spiral staircase to a wonderful wizard's castle. The locals refer to the journey up as "travelling up to heaven". Indeed, the colourful scenery with the green backdrop of the mountains on the way up was striking, but nothing compared to the dazzling view at the top.

From the picture-card clear-blue sea across to the bustling port, and into the heart of Port-of-Spain, it was a fort with one heck of a view. The mountains towered above to the left, looking down on the city, including such important landmarks as the Queens Park Oval and, of course, Brian Lara's hideaway in the hills. The centre of the city is based around 80 hectares of grassland known as the Savannah, and is surrounded by such features as the pink and blue Queen's Royal College, and Whitehall, which is now the Prime Minister's house, but was used as the US Army's headquarters during the Second World War.

As for the fort itself, it has been stripped down to its bare bones. On top of the grassy mound stood the remains of the outside walls, roughly two metres tall, along with a few inner compartments, similar to the remains of forts you can see today on Hadrian's Wall. The original rusty old cannons and the balls were still in position, scouting the Caribbean Sea, and a redundant flag-pole stood lonely on the edge.

There were also the remains of the dungeon, with the hostile black steel bars in the door and in the two windows either side. Hoping to see some remains of captured Caribbeans, the dingy dungeon was disappointingly full of ladders and pots of paint - no way to treat such a historical landmark. The main feature, however, was the two-storey wooden white building in the middle. This was the restructured Signal Station, for which the fort was also used, up until November 1964.

Built in 1883, the station was used in the days of sailing ships, and was designed by the exiled Prince Calcali of Ashantee, in West Africa. He arrived there in July 1881, having been a ward of the British Government after the war against his own people, the Ashantees, in 1872. He was put under the care of JH Collens, then the superintendent of the boys' school in Port of Spain, and author of what must have been the first-ever edition of the Guide to Trinidad, published in London in 1886.

There isn't much in the signal station today. The ground floor is empty and access to the look-out post on the top has been cut off. It wasn't the most imaginative piece of design by the Prince. But, according to the display, he didn't seem the most flamboyant of characters. Apparently he was an unassuming sort of chap, who liked his stamp collecting and was a great exponent of terpsichoral art, which I took to mean dancing. But perhaps all those stamps and all that skipping got too much for the governor, who packed him off to England after a few years where he died of consumption. Or maybe it was all that singing.

Fort George continued to hold the largest contingent of British troops in the Caribbean. However, at some point the soldiers had enough and staged a mutiny against the governor and his officials. Unfortunately the juicy details about the event are locked way, lurking somewhere in the British military records. So even though we'll probably never know what got their goat, you can be sure it wasn't the view.