Wick, Hill Of Man
Anti Aircraft Battery (20th Century)
Site Name Wick, Hill Of Man
Classification Anti Aircraft Battery (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) W2; South Head
Canmore ID 119920
Site Number ND34NE 28
NGR ND 3735 4970
NGR Description Centred ND 3735 4970
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/119920
- Council Highland
- Parish Wick
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Caithness
- Former County Caithness
ND34NE 28 centred 3735 4970
This heavy anti-aircraft battery was situated at the SW end of a row of houses on Hill of Man. Nothing survives of this battery in an area which has now been made into a cycle track across several small mounds.
The battery was armed with two 3-inch guns.
J Guy 2000; NMRS MS 810/10, Vol.1, 37
This heavy anti-aircraft battery is visible on WW II vertical air photographs (NLA 16, 666-667, flown 22 June 1941 in an area SE of Wick known as Hill of Man. The postwar RAF vertical air photographs also show the gun battery, though the two emplacements have already been partly demolished and the hutted camp removed.
Clearly visible on the 1941 photographs are the two gun-emplacements (ND 3735 4970 with a small command bunker to the W. The accommodation camp is about 150m to the NW (centred ND 3730 4980) and consisted of about fifteen Nissen huts.
The site has been cleared and a row of 'Coastguard houses' now occupies part of the where the battery once stood and a disturbed area at the SE end of the Coastguard cottages may signify the location of the emplacements.
Visited by RCAHMS (DE), August 2000
Archaeological Evaluation
ND 3723 4986 A desk-based assessment and a trial trenching
evaluation were undertaken 31 March–16 May 2010 in
advance of a residential development. The area was the site
of two anti-aircraft batteries and associated buildings during
WW2. Previous work in 2008 (DES 2008, 119), had recorded
WW2 gun bases and possible signs of rig and furrow
cultivation. The evaluation consisted of the trial trenching of
10% of Phase 1 of the development in the NW corner of the
site. No finds or features of archaeological significance were
recorded in an area that has apparently been ploughed for
generations and disturbed by the building and demolition of
the military battery and subsequent activity.
Archive: Highland Archaeology Services Ltd
Funder: Pentland Housing Association
