The Victoria Lines at the Mtaħleb/Fomm ir-Riħ end appear to be undergoing restoration. When visited three months ago, a small section of wall had been rebuilt, and capping stones placed in two piles. Two weeks ago, some few capstones were back, poorly aligned, and held by an overgenerous use of cement mortar in lieu of the correct lime mortar. No stones appear to have been numbered or otherwise marked.

The southern end of the Victoria Lines is in dire need of salvage. Even ham-fisted intervention would be better than the present state of advanced decay. The stones at the seaward end of the musketry gallery are badly corroded and much of the mortar gone, so some stones have fallen out. Proceeding northwards, the walkway is in varying states of disrepair. The end nearest the buildings is buried under the soil of the adjacent field, brazenly encroaching.

Further on, the walkway is a stairway – some sections substantially intact, most heavily disrupted. The wall itself is partly collapsed in sections, and so is the wall separating walkway and fields. Up the hill is the worst of all. The walkway is filled in and asphalted over, providing motor access to a few. The impervious surface prevents the diffuse percolation of stormwater, and blocks any drainage channels originally there. Instead it accumulates as a single forceful stream channelled to the downhill section and out the only way available, right through the wall.

This has washed out infill between the outer and inner faces; the facing stones, both sides, are mostly in place, just, held by their own weight and especially by the surviving capstones. However the wall originally depended on the infill for its integrity and needs to be rebuilt with urgency. Essential, too, would be a culvert along the road channelling the water harmlessly past the wall. There is evidence of vandalism here and there so this wall could be no more at any time soon.

This section of wall needs work immediately as a priority, ahead of those parts of the Victoria Lines which have somehow gained more attention.