Between a Rock and a Hard Place
past, present and future

Today the phrase ‘safe as the Rock of Gibraltar’ doesn’t seem to carry the same note of confidence as it once did.
For three centuries this largely uninhabitable rock has been the most heavily contested two-and-a-quarter square miles of land in Europe. And still the British bulldog refuses to slacken his tenacious grip on the foot of Europe.
Although there is now not a single gun with which Gibraltar could effectively be defended, there is still an unmistakable garrison feel to the town. Camouflaged Gibraltar Defence Regiment vehicles swarm over The Rock and armed sentries blink at flashing cameras in front of the Governor’s Residence. But the improbability of the GDR ever having to go into battle in defence of ‘The Imperial Rock’ is reflected in the fact that they number less than three hundred regular soldiers…and that it is not considered a risk to national security for the entire regiment to take two weeks leave over Christmas.
Whether of Portuguese, Italian, Maltese, Spanish or British descent, the people of Gibraltar are almost unanimous in their determination to resist Spanish claims for sovereignty. In the days after the last referendum, in 1967, (12,138 in favour of staying with Britain, 44 against) there were accounts of numerous old ladies tearfully admitting that they had ‘accidentally ticked the wrong box.’
Perhaps it was their enforced isolation during the ensuing sixteen years of the Franco Siege that makes the Gibraltarians so gregarious. One tale that sheds a brilliant light on the local character describes how the community turned out at the border to watch Franco’s guardia civil lock the frontier gates. It was 1969, John and Yoko had just got married on The Rock and the Gibraltarians were as fired up with Beatlemania as they were with patriotic fervour. As the gates banged shut 15,000 faces were turned defiantly towards Spain, and 15,000 voices sang out in a rousing chorus of “We All Live in a Yellow Submarine.”
The enclave’s most famous inhabitants are undoubtedly the Barbary apes, and it is they who - even more than Marks and Spencers, warm bitter or fish ‘n’ chips - attract the tourist revenue upon which The Rock stands or falls. When you ride up on the cable car to witness the persecution of the apes at Queen’s Gate, by never ending coach-loads of tourists, it is comforting to remember that there are other, more isolated, groups on Middle Hill.
It has been prophesied that Gibraltar will cease to be British on the day that the apes leave. During World War II Winston Churchill, learning of diminishing numbers, ordered that ape reinforcements be brought in from their homelands in Morocco.
Recently numbers surpassed 300 and a storm of protest broke from the human population when it was reported that their beloved apes were being slaughtered to reach a sustainable level. To ensure against the necessity of having to repeat these measures the government has now began spiking the ape’s food with birth-control pills.
Nobody knows for sure how the apes originally arrived on the rock. There are theories that they walked across before there was water in the Straits, that followers of Tarik brought them over and - most likely - that British troops bought them from African traders for pets. It has even been suggested that the apes walked along fifteen miles of tunnels under the Straits and that a secret ‘monkey graveyard’ still lies in an undiscovered cave.
The limestone bulk of The Rock is honeycombed with 167 natural or man-made caves. The Upper Galleries, built during ‘The Great Siege’ in 1782 (under the supervision of a Lieutenant J Eveleigh), were the first military tunnels. By the time they were finished the soldiers had dug - with crowbars, pick axes and precious measures of gunpowder - six hundred feet into the rock face to carve out gun emplacements from which to repel the Spanish forces who had almost crept up to the rock face.
Today there are over thirty miles of MOD roads inside The Rock as well as a potential underground city with its own electricity supply, telephone exchanges, frozen meat stores, water distillery, bakery and hospital. It is off-limits to all non-military personnel but it is rumoured that, should a need arise, this city would be capable of housing and feeding two-thirds of Gibraltar’s 30,000 inhabitants. Nobody seems ready to speculate on which two-thirds.
The big guns on O’Hara’s battery once dominated the Strait and from the viewpoint you can appreciate the strategic importance that has dictated Gibraltar’s history. To the east of what sailors called ‘The Gut’ lies the Mediterranean with access to the Eastern Colonies and Australia and to the west, the Atlantic and the New World. On a clear day you can see across to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in Morocco - a weak-point in the morality of Spain’s demands for possession of The Rock.
In 711 AD the Moorish conquest of Spain began from this point when Tarik ibn Zeyad and his Berber warriors swept across the uninhabited rock on their way to conquer Spain. They left behind them little besides a name: Gibraltar is a corruption of the Arabic ‘Djebel Tarik’ - Tarik’s Mountain.
Directly below O’Hara’s Battery, the Europa Point lighthouse appears absurdly small and squat beside the elegant minaret of the Saudi Mosque. It is strange that a mosque should be the last notable building on mainland Europe but Djebel Tarik is still an important place of pilgrimage for the followers of Mohammed.
Beyond the crescent of the Bay of Algeciras the low hills of Andalucia look dusty and burnt in comparison with the rugged greenery of the Upper Rock. The damp wind that blows up the Strait from the east is known as the levanter and it is over The Rock that it delivers its cargo of life-giving rain.
The thick grey cloud that often hovers over Gibraltar is known by the name of the wind that brought it and the Gibraltarians will tell you, with barely concealed pride, that the levanter is often the only cloud visible for fifty miles across southern Spain.
“If you look closely,” they say, “you can see ‘Made in England’ stamped on its underside.”

Factfile

Places to See:
The cable-car gives you access to the viewpoint on Middle Hill, the ‘Apes Den’ and St Michael’s Cave, with its incredible limestone formations. For the more adventurous there is a guided tour of Lower St Michael’s Cave with its underground lake. Spend a couple of hours exploring the twisting alleyways that lay across the lower slopes and the wonderful Gibraltar Museum in Bomb House Lane.
The nature reserve is home to 600 species of plants, the Red Fox (introduced for hunting), Europe’s largest lizard (growing to 60cm) and, of course, its only wild monkey.

Places to Stay:
Toc H Guesthouse is by far the cheapest option at £5/night. It once housed convicts, bound for the penal colonies.
Queen’s Hotel offers a leap upward in comfort for £20/night.
A wider range of accommodation and often better value for money can be found over the border in La Linea.

The Frontier:
There is rarely any delay at the border for foot-traffic. If you’re driving, park in the underground carpark in La Linea and walk across the border.

Best deal on The Rock:

The End