Field Visit

Date 28 March 2019

Event ID 1087720

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087720

Coastal Batteries of Scotland

Two First World War double gun-emplacements are set into a S-facing slope about 25m N of the sea-cliffs. Lying 44m apart, the emplacements are located a little downslope and to either side of the Battery Observation Post (NH86NW 9.45), with Nos.1 and 2 to the WSW and Nos. 3 and 4 to the ESE. The guns were 4-inch quick-firing guns and the two emplacements mirrored each other architecturally. The guns in each emplacement stood about 17m apart, secured to a concrete foundation by a holdfast comprising 18 steel bolts in a circle measuring 1.2m in diameter. The front apron of each platform on which the guns stood is capped with concrete, to a height of 0.4m above the holdfast. Situated between the pairs of holdfasts in both emplacements are the grass-grown remains of a ready-ammunition store. Each comprised two concrete bays, set side-by-side into the N side of what is now a grass-grown mound measuring up to 11m from E to W by 5m transversely and 1.2m high.

Immediately to the N of each ready-ammunition store is a stairwell measuring 9.6m from E to W by 2.45m transversely and 3.2m in depth, which provides access via concrete steps to a basement leading to two underground compartments. Metal footplates are all that survive of a protective railing that once surrounded the stairwells and descended the steps, upon which some of the uprights survive. The basement was once partially protected from the elements by a sheet metal canopy but its location at the foot of a steep slope in which the builders have inserted drainage pipes must have meant that a considerable amount of water was likely to gather there. The problem of flooding was remedied by the provision of a drain located in front of the doorway to the magazine and an outflow pipe S of the emplacement dissipated the water downslope towards the cliff-edge. There would have been a similar arrangement in the W emplacement but the likely site of the drain in the basement there is hidden by debris.

The basements provide access to a telephone box beside the stairs, a cordite magazine and a shell store. In the E emplacement the stair descends from W to E, with the cordite magazine lying to the W of the shell store, both to the S of the stairwell. In the W emplacement this arrangement is reversed. The absence of any form of hoist indicates that the cordite and shells were moved to the guns by hand.

In both emplacements the shell store measures 4.3m from E to W by 3.35m transversely, within whitewashed skimmed concrete walls up to 0.76m thick and 2.28m high. Each has a large rectangular barred window (with a sill but no lintel) in the N wall, providing additional light, while a chamfered doorway in the centre of the party wall provided access to the cordite magazine. This compartment measures 6m from E to W by 3.25m transversely within whitewashed skimmed concrete walls up to 0.76m thick and 2.25m high. The outer edges of the magazine doorway are distinguished by broad chamfered edges, but at both batteries the double doors are missing. There is graffiti in both emplacements, but in the shell store of the W emplacement some of it dates back to the 1940s. Examples include: ‘Robert Knox & John Spence Joiners Aberdeen July 1940’; ‘950.60 G. E. Moss RAF’; ‘46968.3 Aon McCulloch WAAF April 1944’; ‘S. F. Dovey Lickhill Farm Stourport on Severn Worcestershire England 5/9/1940’.

The cordite magazines lack windows, but light was supplied by two small ledges for lamps that pass through the thickness of the walls. One of these emerges in the telephone box, while the other enters the corridor outside, where it was closed by a metal door - one example of which survives in the W double-emplacement. The reinforced concrete ceilings of both compartments have also been whitewashed and the single circular vents penetrating from the gun platform above are covered with square iron grills.

The telephone box in each emplacement measures 1.85m from N to S by 1.23m transversely and 2.53m high. The door frame indicate that it was originally closed by a wooden door. Their interiors contain pipework for cables and a speaking tube, together with the marks of the boards for the electrical equipment that was once attached to their whitewashed walls. Another length of speaking tube is visible emerging from the NE of the grass-grown scarp in the W double-emplacement about 2m above the gun platform (NH 81242 68697).

The gun platforms at both emplacements included temporary gun crew shelters, which supplemented the benches beneath the canopies in the basement. In the NW corner of the E emplacement and the NE corner of the W emplacement is a rectangular arrangement of circular metal sockets, which anchored stanchions supporting the metal framework of a shelter originally covered by a tarpaulin. However, in the NE corner of the E gun emplacement there is a concrete plinth for a stove attached to a concrete backplate, which is pierced by a large circular aperture for a chimney pipe. A similar stance is displaced in the gorse by the NW corner of the W emplacement. These are all that remain of replacement shelters that were constructed with a wooden framework and covered by canvas.

The Fort Record Book (ADM 7/942) in the National Archives at Kew contains a blue print illustrating plans, sections and enlargements of the various components that make-up the emplacements.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AKK, KLG), 28 March 2019