Field Visit
Date 17 May 2016
Event ID 1018793
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018793
Two buildings, comprising the Battery Observation Post (BOP) and the Fire Command Post, stand immediately to the rear and N of the 6-inch gun emplacements (NS28SE 39.01). The brick-and-concrete BOP is the westerly of the two and is a two-storey building which replaced the BOP that was situated on the platform between the two 6-inch guns. As proposed in a plan dated 16 October 1908 (National Archives: WO 78/5184), the lower floor contained two rooms and the upper floor housed the Battery Command Post and the DEL (Directing Electric Light) Post, with windows looking S over the gun emplacements. Access to the upper level was by an external staircase on the E elevation. As depicted on the contemporary plan (National Archives: WO 78/5189), the ground surface on the S and W sides was made up to window level on the upper storey. This embankment was separated from the fully exposed N and E sides of the building by high retaining walls that respectively extended N from the NW corner of the BOP and S from the SE corner. This embankment and its retaining walls have since been removed, a pitched roof added and alterations have been made to the S elevation, with changes to the windows and an extension added.
The two-storey brick-and-concrete Fire Command Post (NS 24900 80568) lies immediately to the E of the BOP and has been incorporated into a dwelling. The original L-shaped upper storey with later additions is still visible and it may be that much of the building (as depicted on a proposed plan dated 12/12/13) still survives within the present structure.
Visited by HES Survey and Recording (AM, HS, AKK) 17 May 2016.
