Following the history of The Gambia and its different centres of attractions, Fort Bullen is another historical vital place to visit. Visiting Fort Bullen should not be left to tourists alone but for some individuals that are interested in knowing the history of the land.

Ebrima Mballow, a standby National Council for Art and Culture (NCAC) attendant at the Fort Bullen knows the history of Fort Bullen like the palms of his two hands. According to him, the famous Fort Bullen was established in 1826 at Barra Point. It was born out of Britain's war against slave trading in 19th century as River Gambia was recognized as a British possession. This is by Treaty of Versailes, 1783. It is across from the town of the then Bathurst. Fort Bullen was built due to the fact that the British founders needed guns on the north bank of the Gambia River in order to control the river mouth. According to history, the fort was meant to complement the six-gun battery on the opposite bank of the river. Ebrima Mballow said the fort was anti-slavery not pro-slavery as others thought.

History noted that James Island had been formally abandoned as British headquarters in The Gambia in 1816 because it was less strategically located than Banjul Island - St Mary's Island, to control the river, and to put a stop to the water-borne, slave traffic out of the river after the Act in 1807.

After their settlement in Bathurst, the British had asked the ruler of Niumi for permission to fortify Barra Point but he refused. 1823 saw Burungai Sonko as Niumi's new ruler. Part of his reign was marked with ill-feeling and tension between British traders and Niuminkas. British heart-felt desires included possession of a one-mile wide strip of land along the whole Niumi shore; waiving the right to collect taxes from traders in exchange for an annual subsidy of _100 and the right to fortify Barra point were granted 1826. This is a story students between grade 5 to 8 can tell you without mixing words.

However, Commodore Charles Bullen, commander of the man-of-war HMS Maidstone, which had taken part in the intimidation exercise, carried two cannons to Barra Point and took formal possession of it and the Ceded Mile on behalf of George IV of England. The site was named Fort Bullen in honour of the Commodore. A little town called Berwick Town, composed of some discharged soldiers and a few liberated slaves grew up near the fort.

In 1831, Fort Bullen was abandoned for a little over four years when the Barra War broke out between the British and the Niuminkas. Small force attacked Essau while trying to arrest some people. The Niuminkas responded violently, killing several of their attackers. The guns at Barra Point were still only temporary emplacements, according to JM Gray. The survivors abandoned Barra Point and did not return until the end of the fighting in January, 1832.

When the fort was finally completed is not clear. But consider the shock and fright that the Barra war gave Bathurst, it seems reasonable to suppose that the British finished the fort soon afterwards perhaps by the mid-1830s. Fort Bullen apparently never had to fend off another attack the rest of its career. During Ma Ba's wars in the 1860s, the fort's chief function seems to have been as a transit camp for thousands of refugees from Sine-Saloum and as a temporary guardian of women, children and old people while both sides fought it out elsewhere.

According to Gray's 'History of The Gambia,' there was no guard placed there after 1870; he implies this, rather than stating it directly. When Senegal was in the hands of the Vichy regime of France, and the Gambia was thus surrounded by a potentially hostile force, they modified the interior gun emplacements and ammunition magazines to accommodate twentieth-century weapons. These emplacements and some of the guns can still be seen there. Since World War II, the fort has been totally abandoned. Till date the Navigation light for the sea inside Fort Bullen is still working.

Fort Bullen was built with laterite, this made it impossible for any bullet to penetrate. It should be understood that Fort Bullen and its environs as a priority for preservation as a national monument. In October 1978, the Honourable Minister of Local Government and Lands approved a request that the fort, together with the land surrounding it, be handed over to the Monuments and Relics Commission. Together with James Island, the structures have been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. This is according to the script that reads "James Island and related sites (Fort Bullen) has been inscribed in the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the protection of the World Cultural and National Heritage.

"Inscription on the list confirms its exceptional universal value which deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity. "James Island and related sites present a testimony to the main periods and facets of the encounter between Africa and Europe along the River Gambia, and confirm that stretched from pre-colonial and pre-slavery times to independence. The sites are particularly significant for their relation to the beginning and the abolition of the slave trade. They also document early access to the interior of Africa."

Note: Read more about Fort Bullen in J M Gray's History of The Gambia.