BIRWADI FORT

OVERVIEW

District : Raigad
Hill Range: Roha
Height above sea level : 1200 feet
Difficulty rating : Simple Grade
Base village : Birwadi
Nearest Railway Station: Roha
Approx. time to reach the top : 1\2 hr from base village
Google Map Co-ordinate : 18°25'20"N 73°2'35"E

How To Reach

There is only one way which reaches the fort through Birwadi village. On the Roha-Murud road, there is a village named Chanera. This Chanera village is 18 km. from Roha and 5 km. from Murud. From Chanera village Birwadi village is just 5 km. away. You can reach Birwadi fort in half an hour from Birwadi village.

It is also possible to reach the fort by very steep tracts which climb straight from the villages of Khera and Canera. The path from Khera leaves Birwadi village in the west or right hand and, after passing a small brushwood-covered hill, enters a somewhat less wooded region strewn with the ruins of houses, apparently remains of a consider-able village or small town. Beyond this the path becomes steep and narrow, winding among boulders and clumps of karinda and other houses. The line of fortifications is about 300 feet above the village.

Place To Stay / Eat

Accommodation Facility
There is no accommodation facility available on the fort. But 20 people can easily stay in the temple

Food Facility
One should make arrangements for foodstuffs.

Drinking Water Facility
Water is not available on the fort.

Places Of Interest

Starting from the village at the footholds, on the way towards the fort you can see a temple of Bhavani Devi. This temple has a spacious courtyard. Recently, renovation of the temple was undertaken. In the courtyard there are some Cannon. Behind the temple is a beautiful 6 fts long statue of Shivaji Maharaj. To reach the temple you have to climb 100 steps. When you go further from the temple, you will come to a Buruj. To the right side of the Buruj is the way which goes to the fort. On the way, you will find a carved water tank named ‘Ghodhyache Taake’. One important thing about this fort is, all the Buruj are without the Wall Fencing. On the back side of the fort is the big entrance door. You can see some remnants of old palaces along with some water tanks On the fort there are few water tanks on plateau of fort.Since plateau is very small it takes around half an hour to explore it.

Fort consists of a triangular sharp elevation, whose top seems to have been protected by structure brick wall laid with mortar. Traces of this masonry remain in places, but the large number of blocks of dressed stones that lie scattered on every side below the fort seems to show that the wall stretched nearly the whole of the lines of defence.

The sides of the fort face the south, the north-east, and the north-west. The gate of the fort, still in good repair, is at the northern angle. There were four round bastions about twenty or thirty feet across and close together, of which only one stands to-day, the gate lying between the two bastions to the east. It is approached by a flight of stone steps, and is a nearly circular archway.

These and the other bastions in the fort were well and solidly built of dressed stone, and had the appearance of being almost entire. They were pierced with loopholes for musketry, but no cannon or opening for cannon are visible in them or else-where in the fort. Besides this, there are four other bastions along the elevation, one on each of the eastern and western angles in the south and north-west sides.

Just within the outer elevation there are four rock-cut water cisterns, two on the north-east side, one on the south, and one on north-west side. One cistern has been built in concrete. Rest are shallow and nearly filled with rubbish. A masonry dam runs outside of these cis-terns along the edge of the elevation. Immediately within this escarpment, the central peak of the hill rises about 200 feet above the fort and about 800 feet above the plain.

On the point of the peak is the plinth of a house about forty feet long by thirty broad, which was either the Governor's residence or a store-house for pro-visions and ammunition. There is nothing in its shape or construction to suggest that it was intended for any special use. The view from the summit is pleasing but not extensive, and is singularly devoid of objects of interest. Richly wooded hills shut in the view on the north, east and south. On the eastern side the view is a little more extensive.

A broad plain, broken by slight inequalities, stretches as far as the Revdanda creek, whose winding course can be followed nearly to the sea. Only the top of the fort of Korlai is visible, the rest being hidden by another nearer hill. Immediately below and on the rear side of the creek are the villages of Birwadi, Canera, Khera, Candganv, and Talavade. These, with Kamble and Yunghar in the valley to the south-east, on the nearer side of the hills, are the only conspicuous objects in the immediate foreground.

At the foot of the hill was a small ruined Musalman tomb of which no traces now remain. The name of the saint is not known but, after the tomb, the village is called Shaikh-ki-Birwadi in contradiction to the other Birwadi in Mahad.