Standing Building Recording

Date 28 September 2012

Event ID 993814

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/993814

NH 8479 7615 A desk-based assessment and building survey were undertaken on 28 September 2012 of the control tower, Fearn Airfield (former HMS Owl), in advance of development.

The control tower is a standard RNAS four-storey structure, one of only two surviving in Britain, and the only one in Scotland. The bricks of the load-bearing brickwork are half-frogged commons, stamped ‘NIDDRIE’. These were produced in a large works near Edinburgh, which was active until 1991.

The construction of the lower walls is of c350mm brickwork supporting concrete floor slabs apparently cast in situ. From the second floor upwards a reinforced concrete frame replaces the brickwork, with block work or brick infill panels. The concrete floor slabs of the first and second storeys are cantilevered out to form balconies to the SW elevation, extending for short distances along the NW and SE elevations.

In one room pencilled marks show where a light switch was intended to be placed, and presumably dates from the construction of the building. In the same room are a crayon profile of a man’s head, with later comments around it, a crude drawing of an aircraft, and the name ‘James Kilpatrick Ltd’.

Two other standing buildings were also recorded: a brick built generator house and a Nissen type hut of brick and asbestos concrete. Hollows and mounds in the grass-grown area around the tower may indicate the remains of other buildings.

Archive: HAS. Report: Highland HER

Funder: Charlotte Seddon

Lynne McKeggie, Highland Archaeology Services (LM)

Pete Higgins, Archaeology North Ltd

2013

(Source: DES)