Archaeology Notes

Event ID 845295

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/845295

NT17NE 71.00 centred 19763 78728

NT17NE 71.01 NT 19694 78663 Engine House (No.1)

NT17NE 71.02 NT c. 1973 7868 Coast Battery (12-pounder battery)

NT17NE 71.03 NT 19771 78728 Gun-emplacement (Twin 6-pounder)

NT17NE 71.04 NT 19729 78733 Engine House (No.2)

NT17NE 71.05 NT 19748 78751, 19737 78764, 19724 78773, 19667 78776 and NT c. 1977 7863

Searchlight Battery (Emplacements Nos.1-5)

NT17NE 71.06 NT 19744 78734 Building

NT17NE 71.07 NT 1967 7875 Military camp

Armed by March 1915; 2 x 12 pdr guns in 1918.

N H Clark 1986

A coast battery situated on the extreme NE end of Cramond Island at the end of a metalled track which originates at the engine house (NT17NE 71.01, NT 1969 7866).

One gun emplacement is extant, though the canopy has been demolished and a further three searchlight platforms lie to the NW, one of which retains its curved metal focussing shutters. Further brick built buildings lie immediately W of the gun position.

Visited by RCAHMS (DE) August 1996

Gun emplacement, magazine, shelters and engine room (NT17NE 71.01) with three fixed beam searchlights. The director tower has been demolished. Cramond Island was fortified during World War One, but there is no record presently available of the armaments at that time. The site was re-acquired by the War Department in the summer of 1939 and by the autumn guns had been mounted on the Dalmeny Battery (NT17NE 71.02). The summer of 1940 saw the arming of Cramond Battery to mount one twin 6 pounder gun. All the defences on Cramond Island were anti-ship covering the channel between the island and Inchmickery and Cramond.

J A Guy 1997; NMRS 810/5,49, 54, 57-9; PRO WO 192/253.

The two gun batteries along with the associated accommodation camps, engine houses, searchlight platforms and ancillery buildings are visible on post-war RAF vertical air photographs (106G/Scot/UK 117, 5017-18, flown 29 May 1946).

Information from RCAHMS (DE), December 2001

Coastal battery, armed in 1915. Records from 1918 show that this battery was armed with two 12 pounder guns, which were intended as a defence against motor torpedo boats. Surviving structures: one circular gun emplacement with metal runners; three elongated D-plan concrete structures with small arms slits to seaward; one elongated D-plan concrete structure with metal shutters on runners facing seawards (coast artillery searchlight); one roofed concrete building 8 by 5 by 2 metres, with raised floor and internal trenches. The site has been vandalised. As these structures were roofed it is likely they were re-used in WW2, as most coastal batteries were retained after 1918. From 1939, batteries were strengthened against aerial bombardment by the addition of roofs. Coastal artillery batteries were abolished in 1956. Lowry 1995, 93-103.

Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 10th March 1996.

Cramond Island was fortified in 1915 as stated, but not in the position of this battery. It mounted two 12 pounder guns in the 12 pdr battery positions shown in the plan of the fort (PRO - WO78/5164). These guns were removed shortly after the end of the First World War, but replaced in the summer of 1939 by two similar guns from Inchgarvie (not Coastguard Battery as BSM Potter recorded in the Fort Record Book). These guns were re-installed on the original First World War mounts. The emplacements are partially buried under earth mounds but the face of at least one of the concrete platforms is visible, to a height of about 1 metre, from the cliff top.

All surviving military structures date from the Second World war and include:- one circular gun emplacement with the metal runners for the shell trolleys; three elongated D plan reinforced concrete structures facing seaward, for wide beam searchlights; one elongated D plan reinforced concrete structure, with its associated metal shutters lying alongside, which housed a steerable concentrated beam searchlight; one roofed reinforced concrete building 8 metres by 5 metres by 2 metres, with raised floor and internal trenches; one roofed, reinforced concrete building. The site was partly demolished by the army when they relinquished their interest in the island in the 1950's and has suffered further recent vandalism.

Information via e-mail to RCAHMS from Mr J Dods (Cramond Heritage Society), April 2006.