Forth Defences, Middle, Braefoot Point Battery

A project to characterise the quantity and quality of the Scottish resource of known surviving remains of the First World War. Carried out in partnership between Historic Scotland and RCAHMS.

Barracks. NT 17800 83462. This barrack block provided accommodation for the garrison and a contemporary plan of it in The National Archives (WO 78/5169) provides sufficient information to negate the need for any modern survey. However, its walls are not built of stone as previously noted but of rectangular concrete blocks fronting an inner skin of brick. The current state of the building appears to be very good considering it is over 100 years old but access to it was not possible on the date of visit as the doorways and windows were blocked some years ago.

Perhaps a point worth noting is the building’s relationship to the ‘Inner Ring’ – a line of defence that comprised a series of pillboxes linked by a 10ft (3m high) palisade outside of which was a barbed wire entanglement. All the pillboxes had a line of sight along the front of a particular stretch of fence and, if necessary, could have fired upon any intruders attempting to break through. The boundary on the SE side of the battery is defended by three freestanding pillboxes but on the W side the pillboxes that were required were incorporated into the design of the barrack block. At the N end of the block there is a room (Room No.3 on the OS plan) with embrasures that were designed to cover the front of the fence to the NE, as far as the main gate to the battery. Other embrasures in the wall faced NW and W. At the S end of the building there was a room that was separated from the main block by a series of latrines and is noted as ‘Extra War Accommodation’ on both the 1912 and 1918 plans. It was accessed from outside by way of a doorway in its NE side. Otherwise, it was a mirror image of the room at the opposite end of the block, having embrasures in its SE wall that provided a line of sight along the front of the palisade as far the point some 98m distance where the fence changed angle. Embrasures in the other walls faced SW and W. What might have been a blind spot along the W side of the barracks was dealt with by the projection to the W of the Dining Room and the provision in its angled NW and SW corners of embrasures. The remains of fixings where the palisade adjoined the block are visible at both the NE and SE corners. What is not known is whether the palisade was carried over the flat roof of the barrack block.

Stores. NT 17808 83449. This rectangular building, which stands immediately E of the barracks, measures 8.55m from N to S by 2.25m transversely and contains three compartments all with a single doorway on the W. The external walls comprise rectangular concrete blocks with an inner skin of brick creating a thickness of 0.26m. The internal partition walls are of brick; the flat concrete roof sits 2.34m above the concrete floor. Lettering above the doorways indicate that the largest compartment (at the N end) was a coal store. The central compartment was for the storage of oil and paint was kept in the southernmost.

Meat and Bread Store. NT 17808 83440. Except for the flat area on which it once stood nothing is now visible of a building that was used to store bread and meat and was situated immediately S of the paint store. This building is not included on a 1912 War Department plan of the proposed battery but it is depicted on a 1918 OS plan which shows that it measured about 3.4m from N to S by 3.1m transversely.

Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (J. Sherriff, A. McCaig), 9 August 2022.

Ordnance Survey 1918. 1:360 scale plan of Special Survey War Department Site at Braefoot Point, Fifeshire - NLS: MapArea.C18:13(05).

War Office 1912 Plan, elevations and other details of the proposed gun battery at Braefoot Point. The National Archives, WO 78/5169.