Polhawn Fort was completed in 1867, when it was known as Polhawn Battery. Built to prevent hostile landings along Whitsand Bay, it was one of a number of Plymouth Defences variously known as Napoleonic Forts or Palmerston's Follies.

Both these names refer to the time of a deteriorating relationship between France and England in the mid-nineteenth century, and more specifically between Napoleon III of France, and Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of Great Britain.

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