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Field Visit
Date 2 September 2022
Event ID 1151463
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1151463
This gun emplacement, which is brick-built upon a concrete raft and with a concrete roof stands on high ground at the S end of Cramond Island, overlooking the anti-boat boom (NT17NE 118) the eastern approach to which it guarded. The emplacement comprises a principal compartment facing SE, which housed a 75mm gun, and two smaller compartments behind separated by a corridor that linked the entrance on the NW side of the building to the main compartment. The gun compartment is rectangular on plan but the centre of the SE side is arced to reflect the rotation of the gun, the position of which is indicated by a holdfast in the floor. The compartment measures 7.34m from NE to SW by a maximum of 5.31m transversely and the walls, which are of varying thickness, stand 2.33m high to a roof that is supported on a framework of rusting vertical and horizontal steel beams.
Both the NE and SW sides contain two embrasures with internal splays.
Of the two compartments to the rear, that on the SW is the smaller and the presence of a hatch in the wall between it and the gun compartment probably indicates that it was a magazine. Internally it measures 2.7m from NW to SE by 2.6m. The other compartment was probably a crew shelter or ready room as it is larger and has a window in its NW side protected externally by a baffle wall and an embrasure with an internal splay in the NE side. The room measures 2.85m from NE to SW by 2.6m. The entrance on the NW side of the building is also protected by a baffle wall and is approached from the SW by way of a flight of concrete steps.
Situated immediately E of and below the level of the gun emplacement is a searchlight emplacement that is reached via a set of concrete steps to its doorway (1.69m wide) at the NW end of its NE side. Of reinforced concrete construction, the emplacement is rectangular on plan, measuring 4.95m from NW to SE by 2.64m transversely and its walls (0.22m thick) rise to a flat roof (0.23m thick) at a height of 2.59m. The wrap-around opening for the searchlight takes in the whole of the SE end of the building and some of both the NE and SW sides. Graffiti is evident on the internal and external walls of both emplacements.
Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (J. Sherriff, A. McCaig) 2 September 2022.
