A rather stocky chap, you might say, this one was pretty funny. Gave us an hour tour of the fort, got to hear the noon gun blast off and watched bagpipers play in the square.

The present Citadel, completed in 1856, is the fourth in a series of forts since 1749 to occupy the hill overlooking the harbour. It is an excellent example of a 19th-century bastion fortification complete with defensive ditch, ramparts, musketry gallery, powder magazine and signal masts. Although never attacked, the fort was garrisoned by the British Army until 1906 and by Canadian Forces during the First and Second World Wars.

The fourth Citadel was established to guard against a land-based attack from the United States. This massive, star-shaped, masonry fortification took 28 years to build. Constructed originally as a smoothbore fortification, the Citadel quickly became obsolete with the introduction of powerful rifled guns in the 1860s. In response to the rapidly changing times, the Citadel upgraded its armaments and for the first time could defend the harbour as well as the land approach because the new artillery fired heavier shells a greater distance and with more accuracy.