Part 3: The Smokey, North Centre Bastion, Western Heights, Dover UK

The third of three videos of the Detached Bastion/North Centre Bastion (aka, "The Smokey", "Dead Man's Island") which forms part of Dover's Napoleonic defenses embedded into the Western Heights.

Part 3 (Revised):

The second drawbridge and passageway to the North Centre Bastion; the third drawbridge; south-western gallery and steps; the devil's tunnel and cave-in; gun rooms; south-eastern steps and galleries; magazines; wells and shaft; spider; pigeon.

Part 1 is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFhDUf3pH74

Part 2 is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oAKgAHiVd0

Still photos of the North Centre Bastion can be seen at:

http://www.panoramio.com/user/250345/tags/North%20Center%20Bastion

Dover is in the county of Kent in England (UK).

My science research interests (evolution and psychology, esp. the archaeotrauma) are at:

http://www.evopsychology.com

My Facebook page is at:

http://www.facebook.com/john.latter

Dover Blog (Social Psychology):

http://dover.evopsychology.com/

Images of Dover:

http://www.panoramio.com/user/250345

John Latter / Jorolat

Category:

Travel & Events

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• drawbridge
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[taraohanlon]

@jorolat Quite beautifully said. Those are the moments when I feel most alive. I am mesmerized by places like the one(s) in question. They are both tranquil, & seductive with just a bit of excitement mixed in for not knowing what I will find. I wish I could go there. Even that primal feeling I sometimes get when hearing an unexpected noise (to use your term) in the dark & having my senses acutely magnified can add so much more to the experience. Sorry to go on so. I really enjoyed your videos..

[jorolat]

@jorolat While making part 3 of this video, a pigeon I had seen earlier knocked an empty can in an adjacent room - the unexpected noise didn't "creep me out", it just made me momentariliy intensely self-aware of my potential to respond - a deeply instinctive response difficult to describe!

[jorolat]

@jorolat Personally, I find the North Center Bastion to be an amazingly peaceful place and very much a home from home (I've been going there since I was three). There are always unexpected and unexplained noises: birds and other small animals often get into the tunnels...

[jorolat]

@jorolat The chap in question's day-to-day life in Dover is conducted in an artificial environment from which all such trigger of fear have been removed: like many people, he now confuses the man-made with the natural (a form of cultural conditioning)...

[jorolat]

@jorolat Re being "Creeped out": Many people find the place "unsettling", even to just talk about it. Just before making the video, I had a pub conversation with a chap in his mid-forties who described the place as "very scary". I pointed out that there's nothing scary about the place at all: people bring their fears with them and this kind of environment simply wakes the fears up...

[jorolat]

@jorolat The tunnel has been sealed on its moat side because of subsidence and the constant drip of water is a constant reminder of potential instability. It has no nickname - probably because very few will enter it!

[jorolat]

@jorolat ...I suspect the nickname has been appended by those who are too scared to go into the more dangerous tunnels such as the one shown in the second of these videos. The tunnel in question is completely detached from the rest of the system and has no openings (other than the entrance) into the outer world - a very dark place, indeed...

[jorolat]

@taraohanlon "The Devil's Tunnel" is a local name that has gained popularity over the last 30 years or so, although I don't know why. This tunnel is one of the straightest and least cluttered in the complex and also has the highest level of ambient light due to the horizontal embrasures looking out into the hanging moat...

[taraohanlon]

Why do they call it "The Devils Tunnel"? Do you ever get "creeped out" or hear anything explainable in the places you explore?

[DayLight95]

My sisters ex showed me this place, and he turned around to me and said not to fall in the counter weight hole cause i'd mess up my ankle and then he did it himself just after xD