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Architecture Notes
Event ID 876891
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Architecture Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/876891
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 In the Second World War the guns had been replaced by twin 6 pounder quick firing anti-shipping guns.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.
