These extremely strong fortifications were developed to protect Britain's coastline from a potential French invasion. Over 100 were built, mainly around the south and east coasts. They had been designed to carry one long 24lb cannon and two 32lb carronades, all mounted on a revolving platform, but most were only armed with the 24lb cannon.

The name and concept came from an action in 1794 in Mortella in Corsica. Royal Navy ships and batteries manned by naval ratings took a considerable time to capture a similar tower, although it was relatively lightly armed. In fact, they only succeeded when red hot shot that they were firing set fire to some combustible material in the top of the tower.

The klt contains a resin Martello tower plus gun and crew in white metal.