I stayed at arms depot turned Airbnb – the area is exploding with history & brewery next door is Fit For a King

FIGHTING a gust of wind, I push open the heavy patio doors to reveal water from Portsmouth Harbour crashing against the dock below.

More than 200 years ago, a shifting house sat on the spot I’m standing on, where munitions workers would change to prepare for their busy day of helping to ready British warships.

Royal Navy recruits would then navigate these waters in Priddy’s Hard, Gosport, loaded with gunpowder to arm the naval fleet before it went out to sea.

Today, the sailors and seamen have been replaced by sightseers, with the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust restoring the 23-acre site.

Having started life as a fort in the 1750s, it was eventually decommissioned as a military weapons storage centre in the 1970s.

The beams, stained wood flooring and white brick of the shifting house remain.

But what was once a 110-square-metre changing room has been transformed into a two-bedroom luxury cottage.

It is called Adventure Prospect, in honour of six naval ships (including one sailed by Captain Cook in the 18th century) that have been named Adventure.

For one night, the Airbnb accommodation became home for my wife and I, as well as our daughters Isabelle, ten, and Amelie, eight, and our dog.

Its features wouldn’t look out of place in a high-end apartment, with two bathrooms decorated in trendy green gloss tiles, a kitchen with its own Aga and a wood burner in the lounge overlooking the water.

There is no wi-fi or television, just board games and blue skies, making it a great place for a digital detox.

Our daughters got over this technological challenge as soon as they were collecting shells on the nearby private pebble beach.

Later, they found a pair of binoculars.

This meant they could spend the afternoon spotting warships across the bay – such as the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest Royal Navy vessel.

There are plenty of reminders of this site’s heritage, including the Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower next door, which details how weaponry has changed from cannons to missile launchers and air-defence systems. You can also see wartime artefacts.

An old gunpowder store has been converted into The Powder Monkey craft beer brewery and pub, where I enjoyed a pale ale appropriately named Fit For A King.

After a four-minute ferry ride across the water, we were given a taste of naval history at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

We climbed aboard the 19th-century HMS Warrior and struggled to count the number of cannons stretching across the bottom of the 380ft-long vessel.

We also met Tiger, the dockyard’s boatswain responsible for maintaining the site’s ships.

He proudly explained how he has been restoring historic vessels, such as an F8 landing craft used in the Falklands, with new engines and original-looking features so they can be enjoyed by visitors on rides around the water.

An MGB 81 (motor gun boat) floats by peacefully as Tiger explains how it took part in the Normandy landings during World War Two before being sold.

The dockyard has its own restaurant, Boathouse 4, that serves dishes created by award-winning former Ritz chef Ruth Hansom.

The ships on this site may not see any action or have much need for weapons nowadays, but Priddy’s Hard and the dockyard are showing they can still make waves all these years later.