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Architecture Notes

Event ID 866039

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/866039

A palimpsest of military buildings dating from 1880 through to 1945.

The Defence of Britain Project

The estuary of the River Forth has been a vital and strategic area of defence for centuries. The estuary, because it faces Europe, cuts deep into the country and has the nation’s capital on the southern shore, was, for a long period, perceived as a vulnerable point on the coast of Britain. It is also the only sheltered anchorage between Invergordon in Easter Ross and the Humber. From the time of Mary Queen of Scots to the mid-1950s the islands of Inchgarvie, Inchcolm, Inchmickery, Inchkeith and the Isle of May have all, at one time or another, had defences built on them. As part of the recording of twentieth century defences in Scotland, two of these islands, Inchkeith and Inchmickery, were selected for survey work.

Inchmickery, situated about 3 km N of Silverknowes, has an area of approximately 1.3 hectares. The defences on the island all date from the twentieth century and include those from World Wars I and II.

The First World War defences are still visible and consist of emplacements for 12 pounder and 4-inch guns. In the Second World War the guns had been replaced by twin 6 pounder quick firing anti-shipping guns. These were placed on a care and maintenance basis as early as 1943. Virtually all space on the island is taken up with the remains of wartime structures. The key features are three tall Battery Observation Posts and two individual gun emplacements, along with a gun platform with three gun holdfasts. The rest of the space is occupied by huts, engine houses, offices, searchlight positions and stores. It has often been thought that the structures on the island were built to mimic a battleship in silhouette; no hard evidence for this has been found and the author feels, following the visit by RCAHMS that this theory is highly unlikely.

RCAHMS undertook a very rapid three hour photographic survey of this small island at the time of the Inchkeith project. The results are now in the Canmore database.

The survey of Inchkeith involved work over two years. Two four day sessions were undertaken, travelling out to the island each day. Compared to Inchmickery and the other islands in the Firth, Inchkeith has a much longer and more complicated military history.

The earliest recognisable remains are those of the citadel built by the French which occupy the highest point on the island, adjacent to the nineteenth century lighthouse. The citadel replaced a fort built by the English during their occupation in 1549. This structure must have been of a very temporary nature, possibly constructed of timber and earth. With the recovery of the island by the French, who garrisoned the island until 1558 on behalf of the Scots, a rather more substantial fort was built. A contemporary description notes ‘walls thirty feet thick’. Despite attempts to demolish the fort, much still survived in 1773; the construction of the lighthouse removed most of the citadel. Much of the east wall, consisting of rubble masonry about 1–2 m thick and a short re-entrant with a gun embrasure, remains.

An armorial panel bearing the Royal Coat of Arms has been inserted over an entrance to the courtyard of the lighthouse. The initials MR and a date 1564 are visible.

The lighthouse replaced an earlier one, the circular base of which survives to the south-east of the later First and Second World War Port War Signal Station. The proprietor of the Island in the early nineteenth century, the Duke of Buccleuch, gave permission for the work to start in 1803. The lighthouse, engineered by Thomas Smith, was opened in 1804. The light was later modified and is now automatic.

The military defences of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries provide the most visible remains. The earliest nineteenth century structures are three stone built forts, numbered 1 to 3 on a War Office plan. Two retain above ground remains in one form or another, the third having only underground remains. They are situated on north-west side and at the north-west and south-east ends of the island respectively. In addition, at the south end of the island, to the north and south of Fort No.3 are two large rock cut ditches running east and west with stone built blockhouses (caponiers) set half way along them. To the north of Fort No.1 is the remains of a half filled rock cut ditch with another short length to the south. The remains of the two forts which survive above ground have date stones ‘VR 1880’, one above the main entrance to the magazines the other on an arch above the entrance road in to the courtyard.

The forts date from between 1878 and 1881 and follow a review of the Forth Defences by the War Office and a visit to the island by Colonel John Yerbury Moggridge of the Royal Engineers, who prepared plans for the gun batteries. The contract for the forts was given to Messrs. Hill and Co. of Gosport, Hampshire, the same firm which had built the major Victorian fortifications at Portsmouth and Spithead. The surviving walls are built of random rubble with some of the remains, including the magazines, underground, below the later gun emplacements. The rock cut ditch at Fort No.3 is about 7 m (20 feet) deep. First and Second World War coast batteries have been built over the stonework of Forts No.1 and 3. Fort No.2 retains elements of the magazine and accommodation under the M Group 6-inch gun emplacement and Battery Observation Post.

The forts were originally connected by a military road about 6 m wide (18 feet). All the forts were completed by 1883, and by 1898 had been armed with one 9.2-inch breech-loading (BL) and two 10-inch rifled muzzle loaders with additional emplacements mounting two 6-inch BLs and two 4.7-inch BLs.

The twentieth century brought an upgrading to the defences on the island. At the beginning of the century three large 9.2-inch calibre BL guns had been mounted in large concrete open emplacements; they were annotated B, F and L Group on the official map.

In addition further emplacements to augment the defences were built just before the First World War at the north, north-west and south-east of the island mounting 6-inch guns. Associated with all these defences were battery observation towers, fire control points, engine rooms, accommodation, stores and many other ancillary buildings along with a tramway, which ran from the harbor to the southeast end, the remains of which can still be seen.

In addition to the main military structures, a Port War Signal Station was built on the highest point near the lighthouse. One problem for the defenders on the island was the water supply. Though there were at least five wells, none produced enough to supply the large numbers of personnel now stationed on the island. A partial solution was found in the construction of a large concrete water collection area, still to be seen on the highest point. This construction never fully solved the water supply problem; through both World Wars the island required additional supply from Leith via water-carrying boats.

In the inter-war period the defences were run down, but not abandoned. However, with the rising threat from Germany in the 1930s, some planning was undertaken to modify and upgrade the guns. The 9.2-inch guns still in situ, were now provided with brick built overhead canopies as protection from aircraft attack.

This protection was also provided to the 6-inch batteries, the construction of which can be seen in a RAF aerial photograph held at RCAHMS. Several anti-aircraft positions were also built and modifications were carried out to many of the buildings to convert them for modern warfare. The Port War Signal Station was also modified with a top storey being added. A small radar set was provided for close watch, the main radar cover coming from mainland based stations. The run down was called Operation Floodtide when most upstream sites were reduced to Care and Maintenance, so that by 1945 only the most important gun sites were still armed.

Following the end of the Second World War the dismantling of military sites began in earnest, and by 1956 the guns from Inchkeith were removed and the site abandoned, except for the Northern Lighthouse Board staff accommodation. Since the 1980s this too has been unmanned and the associated buildings abandoned. Much of the metal work on the island was removed in this period by tenant occupiers.

The island is one of the best multi-period military sites in Scotland, if not in the United Kingdom. Visitors can see five centuries of military remains, though only in three of these centuries was the island actually occupied. Fear of enemy attack has populated not only Inchkeith, but most of the islands in the Firth of Forth with the remains of wartime structures of several periods, and it is likely that these concrete, brick, steel and stone buildings will long be visible as testament to the folly of war.

Information from RCAHMS (DE 2010)

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