Located high on the cliff tops of Alum Bay overlooking the Needles (which is the strange shaped chalk stack formation that stretches outwards towards the sea off the Western point of the Island) This battery has been here since the 1860s and served as a fort to destroy enemy shipping. It has been used throughout WW1 and WW2 but was finally decomissioned from millitary use in 1954. Deep in the cliffs there runs a tunnel system 200ft long and this branches out into a main search light room.

A nearby site on High Down was employed in the testing of rockets for the British ICBM program.[8] The headland at High Down was used for Black Knight[9] and Black Arrow[10] rocket engine tests from 1956–71. During the peak of activity in the early 1960s some 240 people worked at the complex, while the rockets were built in nearby East Cowes. These rockets were later used to launch the Prospero X-3satellite. The site is now owned by the National Trust, and is open to the public. Concrete installations remain, but the buildings that were less durable have either been demolished or were torn down by the elements.

This area is very well know for it's ghostly hauntings. Many ghostly soldiers have been seen running throughout the location and even along the 200ft tunnel and a spectral wartime car has been seen driving along the long winding road.