After losing its American colonies, Britain's Royal Navy needed a stronghold in the middle of the Atlantic. It built one here, at the western tip of Bermuda: a limestone dockyard raised in the 19th century, so strategic that it was nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the West." Warships have given way to cruise ships — Kings Wharf and Heritage Wharf now welcome the largest ships that visit the archipelago — but the ramparts, the vaulted warehouses and the clock tower haven't moved. You literally step ashore into a monument.

The Keep and the National Museum

The dockyard's fortified citadel, the Keep, houses the National Museum of Bermuda, the richest cultural visit in the archipelago. In the Commissioner's House, an imposing cast-iron-framed residence perched on the ramparts, the galleries trace four centuries of history: founding shipwrecks, slavery, ties with the Caribbean and the Azores, privateers and Belle Époque ocean liners. In the citadel's former basin, Dolphin Quest's bottlenose dolphins swim before visitors' eyes, and from the terraces, the view stretches across the Great Sound and the ships at anchor — a lookout whose value the gunners of old already knew.

Artisans, Blown Glass and Rum

The former military buildings have found a second life as craft spaces. Beneath the vaults of the Clocktower Mall, recognizable by its twin towers, shops and galleries fill the navy's former general storehouse. A few steps away, glassblowers work in front of the public in their studio, the neighbouring bakery fills the air with the scent of freshly baked rum cake, and the craft market in the old cooperage offers turned cedar, watercolours and island-made jewellery. Wandering from one workshop to the next easily fills a morning, with a few patio breaks, while children count the cannonballs stacked along the walls.

Swim, Snorkel, Sail

A ten-minute walk from the gangways, Snorkel Park offers its small beach framed by fortifications, with equipment rentals and marked snorkelling trails — the easiest way to get in the water without leaving the dockyard. Pink-sand lovers head instead to Horseshoe Bay, served by a regular shuttle: the archipelago's most famous curve of sand is well worth the trip, especially early in the day. Catamarans, glass-bottom boats and wreck snorkelling trips leave right from the docks; Bermuda has hundreds of sunken ships, and some lie in just a few metres of water.

Exploring from the Dockyard

Evening on the Ramparts

At the end of the day, the dockyard's stones take on a honey-coloured glow and the row of cannons watches the sun set over the Great Sound. The Empire that raised these walls feared a fleet that never came; in the end, it was travellers in sandals who took their place, drink in hand, facing the sunset. History sometimes has a sense of irony — and port calls, a knack for ending on a high note.