Bhagwantgad, Devgadh, Vijaydurg

9 Astounding Forts in 3 days.

Day 01- Pune-Kolhapur-Padmadurg-Sindhudurg-Sarjekot
Day 02- Bhagwantgad-Devgadh-Vijaydurg  -  Purnagad-Ratnagiri
Day 03- Ratnadurg (Bhagavati Killa)-Jaigad  -  Dervan-Chiplun-Pune




Day 02- Bhagwantgad-Devgadh-Vijaydurg-Purnagad-Ratnagiri



After a yummy Pohe at the same place we started early in the morning. The first stop was Bhagwantgad.


Bhagwant Gad

Bhagwantgad is a small long forgotten and neglected fort surrounded by a dense jungle. Built by Pant Bawadekar the fort was captured by British in 1880.

The base village is a tiny Masure village and worth observing are small in height but the neatly constructed huts made of mud.


A trail behind the school through thick bushes and tall trees leads to a flight of steps.

A traverse walk of 20 minutes and the entrance is right infront of you with a huge banyan tree with lot of offshoots jeeting out.

It was simply amazing to watch this huge banyan tree.

The top is very small and has a recently constructed temple. The boundary wall too was entirely covered in the tall grass.

Devgad fort

After the Bhagawantgad endeavor everybody was excited and we preceded the road to Devgadh. The view was amazing as we climbed up small ghat. The breath taking panoramic view of the sea below and the windmills on the faraway hill was simply amazing. Not sure why but the windmills were not working.

Devgad is a natural harbor and well guarded port town. Kanoji Angre, chief of Martha navy, was instrumental in erecting this elegant looking fort spread over 120 acres in 1705. It said that when the fort was built it was surrounded by water from all the sides but now it’s only from two sides.

There is a Ganesh temple in the fort. Worth watching are huge boundary walls and khandak outside the fort. The walls are built with large local stones.

Theres a modern light house build by government of India. It’s worth watching how light house functions. The officer –guard who stays there happily demonstrates the working of light house. It simply amazing to learn how the light house works.

You have to keep footwear outside and climb a tiny winding staircase to the top. The view is magnificent.

Overall this place is worth visit.














Vijaydurga fort

We all were hungry but it was past lunch and our Tavera tyre got punctured. We decided quickly to grab some food in the same time. After eating a yucky missal we proceeded to our next stop Vijaydurg.

The huge six hectares fort is on a strip of land penetrating into the sea. The fort has 27 'Buruz' and built with massive stone walls. The layered fortification with holes of huge cannon balls tells a hair raising history. Under Shivajis command triple rows of huge walls and towers were added for security in the 17th century.

Huge quantity of cannon balls are neatly lined up for the visitors. The fort has large number of offices, darbar and meeting rooms.

A amazing well built and ventilated tunnel is built of one of the important watchtowers.

Government had tried to create here a guest house atop huge storage rooms offering a picturesque sea view but is now abandoned.

Vijaydurg is also famous as Sir J.K.Lockyer discovered helium from here on solar eclipse on the morning of the 18th August 1868.

The architectural marvel is stone wall built around the fort inside the sea at a distance of 300ft from the fort. It is said that majority of attacking ships met their watery grave after colliding on this wall as this wall is not visible above the sea level.It is also said that a long secret undersea/underland tunnel from the fort to the Dhulap’s palatial house in the village which is now partially blocked.


Do not miss a opportunity of the 2 hours guided tour of fort if you are visiting Konkan.