City walls come to life during history walk

Gibraltar’s city walls have kept the enemy at bay for centuries and yesterday local children found out just exactly how they did that as they took part in ‘Walks through history’.

The ‘Walks through history’ events are run by the Gibraltar Museum and form part of this year’s summer sports and leisure programme.

Yesterday, a number of children took a walk from Casemates to the Gibraltar Museum via the walls learning all about their history and the history of the cannons often located on them.

Once at the museum they took a look at the model of the Rock on display which depicts Gibraltar before land was reclaimed outside the city walls.

Jake Piri, 9, thought the walk was good and was delighted to have learnt more about Gibraltar’s history.

“I learnt about the Bastions and how they had people firing from all sides. They were firing at the Spanish in a siege,” he said, adding that he hopes do to another one of the walks planned by the Gibraltar Museum.

Ryan Sene, 10, learnt “about the different kind of cannons and what they were used for. One of them weights 18 tonnes and there were cannonballs that had a shell and mini explosives in them,” he said.

Daniella Gafan, who turns 10 next month, also took part in the walk and enjoyed learning about the cannons the most.

“We learnt about the guns and the cannons and how they lit the fuse to fire them,” she said, adding: “It was really interesting.”

“They also taught us about the different cannons and how they evolved.”

Leading the group was Phil Smith, senior guide at the Gibraltar Museum.

Mr Smith asked the children questions at the end of the walk to see if they remembered what he had told them and every question was answered correctly.

“It’s nice to see that they take some knowledge away,” he said.

The route takes the children from Casemates to Landport Tunnel before heading back into Casemates.

From there they make their way to Orange Bastion, along Prince Albert’s front and then down into King’s Bastion before the final stop of the Museum.