Field Visit

Date 21 October 2016

Event ID 1019646

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019646

Defending the Clyde

Nothing now remains of two searchlights (NS 17540 76295) that once stood close together on the waterfront at Dunoon and supported the use of the anti-submarine net that was strung between there and Cloch Point in World War One. A1927 Aerofilm photograph shows that the searchlights (and the buildings they were housed in) had been removed by that time. The Fort Record Book (National Archives: WO 192/245) contains little detail of the early use of the site but it does contain a sketch map of the gun battery that was in use in the Second World War. The searchlights used in the Second World War were not the same searchlights and, as with their earlier counterparts, nothing of them is now visible in an area currently occupied by a small crazy golf course.

Except for a length of concrete wall on the northern edge of the summit of Castle Hill, nothing is now visible of any of the installations that once stood there. In addition to the 12-pound gun, these were a Battery Observation Post (B.O.P.), a store, a magazine and a war shelter. Other buildings within the battery included two ‘Sleeping Accommodation’ huts (NS 17422 76323 and NS 17440 76352), which stood SW of Castle Hill, immediately W and NW respectively of a building containing public conveniences (NS17NE 115). Another structure, noted as a ‘Cookhouse’ on the plan, was built against the N face of the conveniences. Nothing can now be seen of these three structures.

Similarly, nothing is now visible at the foot of the W flank of the hill of either the ‘Main Magazine’ or the ‘Oil and Petrol Store’. The only building that was part of the battery (though pre-dating it) and still survives is the waterfront cafe (NS 17578 76355), which is noted as being a ‘Store and Office’.

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (JRS) 21 October 2016.