Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 15

A History of Martello Towers in the Defence of British North America, 1796-1871

by Ivan J. Saunders

Appendix H. Tower No. 4, Quebec City

Built: 1808-12
Armed: 1812
Disarmed: top, 1857; interior, after 1869
Demolished: (extant, 1972)
Facing material: sandstone ashlar masonry
Diameter: 42 ft. 6 in.
Height: 26 ft. 6 in.
Wall thickness: 6 ft. to 11 ft.
Parapet height: approximately 4 ft. to 6 ft.
Storeys: two
Purpose: to defend the main Quebec works against an attack across the Plains of Abraham; to see into the valley of the Saint-Charles River; to serve as a keep to a line of emergency fieldworks.

32 Towers No. 1 and 4, Quebec, view, floor plans and section, 1823. (Public Archives of Canada.)

33 Tower No. 4, Quebec, plan and section of the platform and parapet, 1866. (Public Archives of Canada.)