| ALESIA | The siege of this fortified settlement led to Julius Caesar's final defeat of the Gauls (6) |
| ASIDES | Stage whispers as on Julius Caesar's final day? (6) |
| KHARTOUM | General Gordon died at the siege of this African city |
| BATTLEOFWATERLOO | Final defeat of Napoleon I in 1815 (6,2,8) |
| SHERRY | A copita is a glass designed for this fortified wine (6) |
| EXETER | City which was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Britain (6) |
| LYON | A Roman military colony called Lugdunum was founded on the site of this French city in 43 BCE, and it subsequently became the capital of the Gauls. This place reached its peak of classical development |
| BASTION | Graduates bring it back on to this fortified place (7) |
| RINGFORT | Circular fortified settlement of the Iron Age and later; commonly known in Ireland as a rath (4,4) |
| CALVI | Nelson lost an eye during a siege of this Corsican seaport in 1794 |
| LENINGRAD | Siege of this Soviet city lasted for almost 900 days (9) |
| GRANDMA | An ancestor in a large and impressive fortified settlement (7) |
| BELGIC | Be in charge without large abbreviation of northern Gauls (6) |
| ULSTER | Band of Gauls terrorised six counties (6) |
| CAESAR | Spot Russian Emperor talking to Julius (6) |
| ALCUIN | Adviser to Charlemagne Gauls caution regularly |
| BRIAN | King of Ireland killed during the defeat of the Danes at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 (5,4) |
| BORU | King of Ireland killed during the defeat of the Danes at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 (5,4) |
| ELIZABETHI | Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's daughter whose reign as the last Tudor monarch saw the defeat of the Spanish Armada and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (9,1) |
| SEDGEMOOR | A low-lying plain in Central Somerset, scene of the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685 (9) |
