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Field Visit
Date 10 October 2001
Event ID 935305
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/935305
The Torry Point Battery, built in the early 1860s and used again in both the First and Second World Wars, is situated on the N side of Torry Point, a narrow headland overlooking the southern approaches to the mouth of the River Dee and Aberdeen Harbour. The last armaments were removed from the battery in 1956, and the later emplacements have been demolished or buried under roughly landscaped spoil.
In its original form, the battery was roughly diamond-shaped on plan, but with rounded angles on the NW and SE, and a bastion on the SSW; a second bastion and the adjacent curtain wall on the NNE have been demolished. The high curtain wall of rectangular granite blocks was fronted by a broad ditch, which still survives on the E, S and NW sectors. The interior measures 120m from NW to SE by about 60m, and the main entrance is immediately S of the NW angle, where a rounded arch of finely-dressed ashlar allows vehicular access. Major ranges of buildings stood along the SSW side of the interior, but with the exception of the guardhouse on the N side of the entrance, these have been demolished. The NE sector, where the majority of the nine gun platforms lay has also suffered heavily, first with the construction of large concrete emplacements for the later batteries, and then with their subsequent demolition and landscaping. Nevertheless, elements of three earlier gun platforms are visible at the NW end and at least one at the SE end, and some of the adjacent magazines are also apparently intact, though largely inaccessible. When the battery was operational in the Second World War, there was an extensive encampment of nissen huts outside the curtain wall on the S and SW. These too have been removed, although platforms and concrete floors reveal the presence of most of those on the S. The rest have been destroyed, but aerial photographs and War Department plans show their rough positions.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 10 October 2001.
