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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 760134
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/760134
ND34SW 311.00 311 435
ND34SW 311.01 ND 34076 43706 Control Bunker
ND34SW 311.02 ND 33939 43894 Air-raid Shelter
ND34SW 311.03 ND 33751 43324 Structure
ND34SW 311.04 ND 33846 42999 Structure
ND34SW 311.05 ND 33441 44088 Structure
ND34SW 311.06 ND 33466 43890 Structure
ND34SW 311.07 ND 33896 43092 Enclosures
ND34SW 311.08 ND 33919 43068 Enclosure
ND34SW 311.09 ND 33756 43010 Structure
ND34SW 311.10 ND 336 435 Runways
This Second World War decoy airfield is situated in low-lying peat-bog and improved pasture fields at the foot of the NE flank of the Hill of Ulbster. It comprises a control bunker, an air-raid shelter and several other buildings and earthworks, as well as dummy runways, taxiing strips and service roads. The layout of the decoy is best appreciated on vertical aerial photographs, including NLA 1, 24-25 and 324-325, flown 6 February 1941 & and OS 22 87, print 59, flown 7 October 1987.
The surviving remains show that the decoy was designed to operate both by day and by night, and that it was intended to distract the enemy from the 'parent' target at Wick, under whose command it lay (Dobinson 2000; 244). It is also clear, from both the surviving remains and the aerial photographs, that the layout of the decoy broadly mimicked the plan of the airfield at Wick (Smith 1983, 220), although the decoy is only about 70% of the size of Wick.
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 24 August 2004
