Martello Towers are round towers for coast defence, about 40 feet high, built most solidly, and situated on the beach. They were so called because at Mortella Point in Corsica a small round tower stood admirably an immense cannonade from an English fleet under Lord Hood in 1794. They were mostly erected at the end of the 18th century as a defence against French invasion, and are now regarded as obsolete.
Martello Towers
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 7: Maltebrun to Pearson, p. 65
Source scan(s): p. 0074