This Vickers Machine Gun Pillbox is one of a number of defence structures on the breakwater at South Gare. Over the years shifting sands and coastal erosion has lead to the pillbox becoming dislodged from the original location and sliding down to the beach.

For obvious reasons during WWII this area was one which was well covered; with surviving anti aircraft gun holdfasts, a large gun emplacement toward the lighthouse, the former submarine mine depot (with its own pillbox) and a number of other pillboxes and wartime related structures. Perhaps more interestingly there is a petroleum warfare site which is now mainly hidden in the sand dunes.