Archaeology Notes
Event ID 850259
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/850259
NS45NE 39 4523 5719
An anti-aircraft battery is depicted on the latest edition of the OS map (OS 1:10000 map, 1985) within the Ailsa View Caravan Site.
Information from RCAHMS (DE) 23 April 1996
This battery is located on the N side of the A736 public road. The battery as originally built, housed four 3.7/4.5-inch guns with the 5.25-inch battery being built to the SW. The gun emplacements and their command post have now been demolished to make plots for caravans, the only structure found of this battery was the Gun Laying radar platform.
Information from Mr J Guy August 1996
Recorded as part of Mr J Guys Strathclyde Survey.
J Guy 2001; NMRS MS 810/11, Part 2, 173-4
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.
The concrete gun laying radar platform (radar ramp) has been identified from oblique aerial photographs taken in September 2007 (RCAHMS 2007) on the N side of the site at NS 45181 57242.
Information from RCAHMS (DE), December 2007.
On the date of visit no evidence of the World War II anti-aircraft battery was found in an area now occupied by a static caravan park. However, the postwar four emplacement anti-aircraft battery (NS45NE 40) is extant.
Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 5 June 2007.
