Clyde Defences, Fort Matilda Lyle Hill Defences

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.

Nothing is now visible on the summit of Lyle Hill of a First World War anti-aircraft battery, one of two that contributed to the defence of the coastal battery at Fort Matilda (NS27NE 40.00). The site is depicted and annotated on a contemporary map (National Archives: WO 78/4396), which shows the position of the single gun on the summit. It also depicts two buildings (NS 25694 77154) about 15m NE of the summit, annotated ‘Cookhouse’ and ‘Men's ‘hut’, and another very small square structure (NS 25739 77146) about 60m to the E of the summit, which is annotated ‘Men's EC’, most probably standing for ‘Earth Closet’. All that now remains to be seen of any of these buildings is a platform measuring 11m from NW to SE by 4 transversely that has been cut into the slope and on which the ‘Men’s Hut’ and the ‘Cookhouse stood. An album of photographs of the 2/1 company Clyde Royal Garrison Artillery based at Fort Matilda (part of the collection of the Mclean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock) contains at least four photographs of the Men’s Hut. It was a wooden building that was orientated NE and SW, and which stood on the NW end of the platform. It had a monopitch roof, weatherboarding and there were two windows in its SE side. A path led to the hut from the SE, and a small garden and window boxes are also visible in the images. One photograph suggests that the ‘cookhouse’ was not a built structure and actually little more than an open-air space with a couple of tables and, perhaps (not shown), some form of fire or oven.

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (AKK) 9 March 2016.

Nothing is now visible on the summit of Lyle Hill of a First World War anti-aircraft battery, one of two that contributed to the defence of the coastal battery at Fort Matilda (NS27NE 40.00). The site is depicted and annotated on a contemporary map (National Archives: WO 78/4396), which shows the position of the single gun on the summit. It also depicts two buildings (NS 25694 77154) about 15m NE of the summit, annotated ‘Cookhouse’ and ‘Men's ‘hut’, and another very small square structure (NS 25739 77146) about 60m to the E of the summit, which is annotated ‘Men's EC’, most probably standing for ‘Earth Closet’. All that now remains to be seen of any of these buildings is a platform measuring 11m from NW to SE by 4 transversely that has been cut into the slope and on which the ‘Men’s Hut’ and the ‘Cookhouse stood. An album of photographs of the 2/1 company Clyde Royal Garrison Artillery based at Fort Matilda (part of the collection of the Mclean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock) contains at least four photographs of the Men’s Hut. It was a wooden building that was orientated NE and SW, and which stood on the NW end of the platform. It had a monopitch roof, weatherboarding and there were two windows in its SE side. A path led to the hut from the SE, and a small garden and window boxes are also visible in the images. One photograph suggests that the ‘cookhouse’ was not a built structure and actually little more than an open-air space with a couple of tables and, perhaps (not shown), some form of fire or oven.

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (AKK) 9 March 2016.

Nothing is now visible on a rocky summit, redeveloped as a viewpoint, of a World War Two light anti-aircraft battery which is visible on an RAF air photograph (106G/UK/988 3460) flown on 9 November 1945 and also noted in a document held by the National Archives at Kew (WO 166 7369). The battery was one of at least three constructed to protect Gourock. Similar arrangements of light anti-aircraft batteries were established around a number of vulnerable points, either military or industrial, along the banks of the Clyde.

This position was also occupied by a World War One light anti-aircraft gun (NS27NE 40).

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AKK) 22 August 2017.