Visitors to Louisbourg from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century were unanimous in describing the wind-swept peninsula as a lonely, desolate place. The modern town of Louisbourg grew up on the harbour's north shore, about three kilometres from the fortress site. Except for a few houses, nothing remained on the peninsula but the huge mounds where the fortifications once stood. In 1760 William Pitt had ordered the systematic demolition of the defenses. It was a difficult job since the walls were as much as nine metres high and eighteen metres wide. Tunnels were dug into the walls, charges set, and debris from the blasts flew across the town. In just a few months, twenty years of construction work had been totally destroyed. Some of the mounds left by the explosions still give silent testimony to Louisbourg's short but tumultuous history.
