The Great Siege lasted for close to four years and the besieged suffered great trials and tribulations.

Once again, the town was devastated with most of the houses in ruins and the street unpaved and almost impassible.

Many towers and high buildings were pulled down and others destroyed by bombardment and fire.

Also destroyed, for reasons of security, was the stone Landport Bridge.

When, by 1782, the enemy forces had moved so close to the Rock that none of the existing batteries could fore down on them, the Governor General Elliott, offered a reward for suggestions as to how flanking fire might be brought to bear on the Northern face of the Rock.

One idea was to mount guns on top of the projection in the rock face known as “The Notch”.

The problem was how to move the guns up there!