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In 1808 and 1809 Wellington had defeated the French in their first two invasions of Portugal. In 1810 they were back again.

Despite defeating the French at Buçaco, Wellington continued to retreat towards Lisbon. While the Luso-British army had been away from the capital, a line of fortifications, redoubts and other obstacles had been constructed from the Atlantic to the Tejo estuary, turning the Lisbon peninsula into a large fortress. Wellington fell back behind these Torres Vedras lines and allowed the French to falter at the end of their supply lines while his troops were supplied by sea.

My discovering of the Torres Vedras Lines, both in print and in the field, is inevitably slow. I am no historian and this site is far from being a historical record or authoritative guide; it merely aims to document what I have found and hopefully encourage others to also explore this phase of Luso-British history.

How to use this site

This site basically supports a Google Earth file, so use that to find your fort and then read the information there - or see the photos by following the links back here. If you only have 5 minutes then look at the Map view page but I would advise people to download the file from the Google Earth page for a more detailed understanding of what I have done and where I have been.

Last update: 21 July 2019