World War One Audit of Surviving Remains
Date 15 July 2013
Event ID 962505
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type World War One Audit of Surviving Remains
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/962505
In its original form, the Torry Point Battery, is shown on War Department plans from the 1860s (The National Archives WO 78/ 5198) and is as described by RCAHMS.
Emplacements for nine guns - six 68-pdr smooth bore and three larger 10-inch guns - are marked on a plan of 1865 (The National Archives WO 78/5198) which also notes the cost of construction, at £8160 (£609,000 at current value in 2013).
The battery was reconstructed between September 1904 and January 1906 (The National Archives WO 78/5198) at a cost of around £5600 (2013 value £469,000) by an Ayr firm, J & B Meikl. The battery of two 6-inch guns, with a magazine below, lay upon a mound that covered the front wall of the original fort. In the years immediately following the battery was altered, including extending the arc of fire of both guns, to west and east, to cover part of Aberdeen harbour and Nigg Bay; this was done by demolishing parts of earlier gun platforms.
Plans were made in 1913 for the infantry defence of the battery, including the construction of a barbed wire entanglement and a pillbox, which continued in use through the Second World War.
In the Second World War the gun emplacements were given overhead protection against aerial attack and a high battery control tower (visible on post-war aerial photographs) was built.
Information from HS/RCAHMS World War One Audit Project (GJB) 15 July 2013.
