Pair of historic coastal bastions on Gibraltar’s western Line Wall.
Jumper's Bastion refers to two adjacent bastions on Gibraltar’s West Side along the Line Wall Curtain. Created in 1785 on earlier sites and named for Captain William Jumper, they include North and South Jumper's Bastions, originally Spanish and later rebuilt as distinct defensive structures within Gibraltar’s fortifications.
Jumper's Bastion denotes two adjacent bastions, north and south, forming part of the fortifications of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. They stand along the Line Wall Curtain on Gibraltar’s West Side and were both created in 1785 on the sites of previous constructions. The name commemorates Captain William Jumper, identified as one of the first officers to land ashore and capture the existing Spanish bastion during the Capture of Gibraltar in August 1704. The northern work, known to the Spanish as Santa Cruz Bastion, was designed in 1575 by the Florentine military architect Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino. After its capture by the British in 1704 it was renamed the Eight Gun Battery, and rebuilt in 1785. A later report by General Sir John Thomas Jones led to its enlargement and rebuilding between 1844 and 1847 into a demi-bastion with two flanks and one face. The southern bastion was also rebuilt in 1785 on the site of an old sea gate. It has a flat face parallel to the curtain wall and resembles a platform, being designed for defence by musket fire only, with more modest, two-level accommodation on two sides.
