Field Visit

Date 31 August 2022

Event ID 1151439

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1151439

Forth Defences

The Second World War gun battery on Cramond Island was equipped with two engine houses, No.1 being situated on high ground 40m SW of the 12-pounder gun emplacement (NT17NE 71.02). The building is more or less identical to No.2 Engine House (NT17NE 71.05) but differs in its internal arrangement. Rectangular on plan, it measures 9.17m from E to W by 5.64m transversely within brick walls 0.45m thick. These rise to a high flat roof supported by thick concrete beams. The top of the roof has been camouflaged with a layer of grass held in place around the edges by a low brick revetment. Most of this cover remains in place though much of the brickwork has now gone. The only doorway is 1.85m wide and is located close to the E end of the N side. All four walls contain windows, some containing their original frames, and there are blocks of narrow vents immediately below the roof, some of which retain their external louvred covers.

The interior originally contained four rectangular concrete plinths measuring about 0.3m in height and once supporting diesel engines, but the two plinths closest to the ESE end have been removed down to the level of the concrete floor. Accompanying these plinths is a system of 0.3m wide channels in the floor which are linked via apertures at the foot of the walls to an external drain. The exhausts from the diesel engines were vented through the SSW wall where there was a wide aperture aligned with each of the plinths. The internal wall-faces especially, but also the external ones, are liberally covered with graffiti, some of it very modern. The internal walls also bear traces of the original paint. On the date of visit nothing was seen in dense undergrowth of the building that is known to have stood immediately E of the engine house and was of similar length.

Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (J. Sherriff, A. McCaig) 31 August 2022.