Murney Tower

The tower stands surrounded by a dry-ditch and is accessible only by a bridge. When the tower was originally built, there was no bridge to cross the dry-ditch. It is likely that soldiers would have accessed the tower through two ladders placed in the ditch. Murney Tower was constructed with locally quarried limestone with special brickwork on the barracks and basement levels of the tower's interior. On the thickest side the walls are about 15 ft. thick at the base and 13 ft. thick up top. On the weaker side the walls are about 8 ft. thick. The walls are thicker on the south side because a naval attack from the Americans was the most likely form of attack and thus is what the tower is prepared for. Cannonballs from enemy ships should have theoretically bounced right off the walls.

Currently, the barracks has two internal carronade cannons that would have fired 32-lb cannonballs directed out shuttered windows. These carronades had a range of 400 metres and would have been used for anti-personnel warfare in case of a land attack. These cannons could be moved about the interior embrasures, and so cover multiple approaches, including the bridge.

The lower floor contained the ventilated gunpowder and artillery magazines and storage rooms, along with 4 capponieres, which acted as a defense system for the dry-ditch surrounding the Tower, allowing soldiers to fire through small loopholes at troops attacking the Towers base. Caponiers were unique to the Kingston Martello Towers, due to controversy surrounding them. The walls are much thinner in the caponiere than in the rest of the tower and are thus more vulnerable to attack. However, they also provided troops with the opportunity to protect the dry ditch through rifle loops, with strategic additional doors and rifle holes meant to keep out any enemy who successfully breached the caponier.

The uppermost level is the artillery or gun platform, which supports a Blomefield cannon (which also fired 32-lb cannonballs) that could be rotated along an iron track, thus, providing full coverage around the Tower's entire circumference. The Blomefield cannon was redesigned by Thomas Blomefield, Inspector of Artillery and Superintendent of the Royal Brass Foundry in 1780. Blomefield redesigned the Armstrong cannon that had been previously used by the British forces, replacing it with a cannon that was simpler in design, lighter, and had more effective recoil restraint. The cannon weighs 6429 lbs, with a range of 2000 metres.

Roofs are not original Mediterranean design of Martello towers, but a temporary snow roof was later added to the open gun platform two years after the tower's construction protects the gun and keeps out the large amounts of snow. The addition of a roof is a common feature on Canadian Martellos. The original roof was installed in 1849. In 1921 a windstorm removed the original wooden and tin roof. Parts of the roof date to the reconstruction that followed in 1925, but the majority of the present roof dates from the 1970s and is not removable for safety reasons. Despite being one of the most sophisticated Martello towers designed and built by the British, Murney Tower quickly became obsolete due to improvements made in military weaponry and ship design.

In 1925, the museum was opened as a museum for the public by the Kingston Historical Society. It continues to be operated by the Kingston Historical Society as the Murney Tower Museum through the summer months (May - Labour Day in September). Displays include three cannons (32-pounder), period uniforms, muskets, and other mid-19th century military artifacts.

Although 14 Martello towers were built in Canada, only 9 are still standing, 4 of them in Kingston. Currently, only Murney Tower Museum is open to the public. Fort Henry has two towers that resemble Martello towers, however, they are branch ditch towers.

• Murney Tower - Kingston Historical Society