Brahan, Camp 109, German Working Camp
Prisoner Of War Camp (20th Century)
Site Name Brahan, Camp 109, German Working Camp
Classification Prisoner Of War Camp (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Brahan Castle Policies
Canmore ID 181643
Site Number NH55NW 172
NGR NH 51774 55412
NGR Description Centred NH 51774 55412
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/181643
- Council Highland
- Parish Urray (Ross And Cromarty)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Ross And Cromarty
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
NH55NW 172 centred 51774 55412
Camp (disused).
OS 1:10000 map (1992)
A Prisoner-of-War camp is visible at this location on Royal Air Force aerial photographs taken in 1946 (106G/Scot/UK 114: 3076, 3077).
Information from RCAHMS (KM), 15 March 2001.
Note (22 April 2022)
A Second World War Prisoner of War camp (no. 108 Working Camp) was built on the estate of Brahan. It comprised a guard camp and a fenced prison camp with recreation field. The land was according to Brahan Estate leased to the Ministry of Works from 1944 to 1957. The camp held Italian, German and other axis nationalities. The prisoners where delivered to local farms to help provide additional manpower.
Following the end of the Second World War the former PoW camp was repurposed as a Displaced Persons Camp and mostly held Ukrainians who because they had fought on the axis side could not return to the Ukraine which was then part of the Soviet Union, for fear of imprisonment or death. The UK government accommodated these former PoWs in old camps across the UK. The men were put to work in local farms and industries.
After which the camp was used for storing agricultural materials and equipment as well housing families and children for the potato harvest, until 1957 when the site was returned to Brahan Estate. Two concrete memorials were constructed at the entrance in 1949, one of which still survives (see NH55NW 172.01).
The remains of the camp visible on current vertical aerial photography comprise at least three buildings, a number of concrete hut bases and the road/tracks within the camp.
Information from HES 22 April 2022
