Field Visit
Date 29 August 2022
Event ID 1151307
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1151307
The First World War gun emplacements are situated on a natural ridge overlooking the River Forth from the S, the westerly (NT 15809 79328) of the two facing NNE and the easterly (NT 15837 79313) facing NE. The emplacements are effectively identical, differing only in minor detail, and the respective crew shelters are mirror images of one another. The emplacements each comprise three elements, the topmost being a gun platform. Below this there are ammunition lockers and below them a crew shelter. Each structure has been set into the rear of a natural ridge and built around a core comprising a vertical cylinder of concrete measuring about 3.8m in diameter. Radiating out from this core is a series of horizontal steel beams that have been linked to a series of vertical steel beams, together forming a rigid framework. This has supported horizontal levels of concrete laid on corrugated iron sheets and vertical levels (walls) that comprise a mixture of brick and concrete.
Each gun platform exhibits a steel holdfast 1.22m (4ft) in diameter which is anchored to the top of the concrete core and set towards the front of a near semi-circular platform measuring 5.8m from the rear, where there was a rail, to the front, where there is a low (0.69m) concrete parapet. Immediately below the gun platform in both emplacements is an ammunition locker that has originally been accessed via an arcing series of nine doors which are now missing. The locker measures about 1.8m from front to rear but only about 0.85m in height. Access to the ammunition was from a walkway (1.3m in breadth) around the edge of which was a rail. Access to both the gun platform and the ammunition locker from the crew shelter was by way of vertical steel ladders which have since been removed.
The crew shelter forms the lowest level in both emplacements and they are simple compartments measuring no more than 4.9m by 3m. Both have facetted front faces (reflecting the infill between the vertical steel framework), the three facets respectively incorporating a doorway (0.85m wide) and two windows (each 0.9m wide). The interiors of both crew shelters are liberally covered with graffiti.
Visited by HES Survey and Recording (J. Sherriff, A. McCaig) 29 August 2022.
