Field Visit

Date 20 February 2020

Event ID 1125150

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1125150

Coastal Batteries of Scotland

This building, which is situated 240m NW of the Fire Command Post (NH86NW 11.1) and 7m S of the footpath leading to Cromarty, formed part of the infrastructure introduced to the Cromarty defences by the Army during the Second World War. It is terraced into the steep N-facing slope and comprises a small lobby at its SW corner that provides access to a larger compartment. The building is approached from the path below by a flight of seven steps leading up towards an entrance porch that retains its sheet metal door. Inside, the lobby measures 1.37m from NE to SW by 1.16m transversely within reinforced cast concrete walls 0.41m thick and 1.97m high; and this shares a flat roof with the rest of the building. The main compartment measures 2.76m square within reinforced cast concrete walls 0.46m in thickness and 1.97m in height. There is a single, narrow, rectangular gun-loop in the E and W elevations. Both loops were originally provided with dropdown sheet metal shutters, but only that on the W side remains. By contrast, a broader observation window accompanies a loop in the N elevation and both retain their metal shutters. Few internal features survive, but there are short cable ducts in the concrete floor adjacent to the N wall and the NE corner of the main compartment, while wooden plugs for boards carrying electrical equipment are present on all of the walls except that on the W. A green colour wash applied to the walls has been over-painted recently with graffiti, while the sides of the gun-loops preserve traces of whitewash.

The building is annotated ‘Mine Control’ on a plan of the batteries in the Fort Record Book held in the National Archives at Kew (WO78/5912). It is clearly visible on an RAF aerial photograph (SCOT 106G-RAF-0751-6036) flown on 31 August 1945.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AKK), 20 February 2020.