Junction at High West

The stone wall, earth bank, and small concrete structure remain from the former shooting range. City residents trained here while combining ordinary work with military service, and the slope beyond the targets served as a safe backstop for bullets. After the range closed, the site was designated for picnics, while vegetation gradually concealed the firing positions below the road. The trail now runs along the boundary of the place where shooting ended.

Lugard Road, Harlech Road, and Hatton Road meet at the pavilion, and the climb to High West begins among the trees. The Chinese name of the summit, Sai Ko Shan, means “Western High Mountain.” The trail leads to the summit via a site laid out for an entirely different activity.

In nineteen oh six, the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps asked for a shooting range to be built here. They were local residents who served as soldiers only part-time: they earned their living in civilian jobs and trained militarily in their free hours. They needed a range that could be reached quickly from the city.

Engineers placed the targets on the eastern slope of High West, near the present-day junction. The firing positions were below Harlech Road, at a distance of two hundred to five hundred yards. The volunteers fired from east to west. The people who serviced the targets sheltered behind a stone wall and an earth bank; nearby, a small concrete structure was built to store target mechanisms brought from England.

That is why the shooting range ended precisely here. The slope beyond the targets caught the bullets, and the roads made it possible to bring shooters to several firing positions. When shooting resumed after the Second World War, officials issued a separate warning: red flags were raised on the shoulder of High West, by the trail to the targets, and along Harlech Road. While they were flying, entry to this site was forbidden, although pedestrians could still use the road itself.

Meanwhile, lower down, on the western slope, Queen Mary Hospital had opened as early as nineteen thirty-seven. The shooting range had appeared before it, but now a stray bullet could veer toward the hospital buildings and neighboring development. The military obtained a risk assessment and closed the range in nineteen sixty-three: other sites were already available for training.

The site by the targets was designated as a picnic area, while the firing positions below the road gradually became overgrown. The climb to High West passes the former target store, the stone wall, and the earth bank. The present-day trail begins where the trajectory of a bullet once ended.