Fort St. David

Fort St. David stands in ruins near Silver Beach in Cuddalore, at the mouth of the Gadilam River, about a hundred miles south of Chennai. The Dutch began a fort here at Devanampatnam in 1608 with the Gingee Nayaks' leave, but Portuguese pressure stopped them, and the fort stayed with the Nayaks. In 1690 the Maratha ruler Rajaram, besieged in Gingee, sold it to the English, outbidding the Dutch and French. Elihu Yale, Governor of Madras, named it after Wales's patron saint. The sale took in all land within range of a cannon fired from the fort, and the villages so acquired are still called the 'cannonball villages'.

The British strengthened it from 1725, made it their southern headquarters in 1746 and beat off French attacks under Dupleix. Robert Clive was appointed governor in 1756, but the French took the fort in 1758; it changed hands again before passing finally to the British in 1785. Once the French threat ended it was abandoned, and the ruins are not maintained.