Archaeology Notes
Event ID 764113
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/764113
NS45NE 40 4517 5716.
This battery is situated immediately to the SW of NS45NE 39. A post-war battery similar to that at Stockiemuir (NS58SW 14) with the engine room, predictor computer building and the four gun emplacements standing about one storey above ground. The gun pits and engine rooms are full of water, the site manager stated that the middle two gun emplacements are to be demolished later this year (1996). The boundary fence and fir tree screen were still extant as was the officers quarters buildings which are occupied, the camp site hut bases can still be traced. Records show that the guns for this battery were disposed for scrap in July 1956 to McConnel of Coatbridge.
Information from Mr J Guy August 1996
Post-war heavy anti-aircraft battery situated within a caravan park. The owner has suggested that he may demolish one of the gun emplacements. The radar ramp forming the GL-mat from the earlier AA battery (NS45NE 39) is still extant.
Recorded by Mr J Guy as part of the Strathclyde Survey, 2001.
J Guy 2001; NMRS MS 810/11, Part 2, 172-3; Vol.2 (appendix), 16-18
Vertical air photographs taken in 1946 (106G/Scot/UK 84, 3325-3327, flown 10 May 1946), show the World War Two date heavy anti-aircraft battery at this location. Four gun-emplacements with the command position, an arc of huts to the NE and a line of hut bases on the S side of the road and the radar unit, GL-mat to the N.
A series of vertical air photographs taken almost eight years later (F22/RAF/932, 0460-0462, flown 31 May 1954)show the postwar four emplacement anti-aircraft battery (NS45NE 40), has been built immediately to the SW of the four WW II emplacements and does not overlie them. The cable trenches from the postwar battery have encroached over the area formerly taken by the GL-mat.
No additional accommodation for the postwar battery is visible on the later series of air photographs.
Information from RCAHMS (DE), June 2006.
This post-World War II anti-aircraft battery comprises four gun emplacements, each with an engine room and a predictor computer building, and at least two other buildings, one of which has heavily armoured doors (NS 45323 57104). All are roofed and in relatively good condition. Part of the original fence around the battery is visible on the SE side of the static caravan park in which they are situated.
Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 5 June 2007.
