In the water just off Confederation Park
Commemoration
British military engineers designed shoal tower and the outer Martello towers built between 1846 and 1848 to strengthen the Kingston fortifications, as tensions with the United States threatened to escalate into war. Shoal Tower helped protect the Royal Naval Dockyard, which provided ships for the defence of Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence. It featured massive round walls surrounded entirely by water, making it unique in British North America. Less than two decades after its construction, Shoal Tower became obsolete because of advancements in artillery. Today, it is one of the few remaining Martello towers in Canada.
Background
Other Martello towers can be seen on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City and on the south coast of England where they were built to defend against a possible Napoleonic invasion.