South Sutor, Coast Battery, Searchlight Battery

Two searchlight emplacements (or electric light emplacement as annoated on the plan of the site (The National Archive WO 78/5192)), part of the 4-inch QF coast battery are located below the military camp (see NH86NW 11.17) just at the cliff edge.

The surviving structures comprise a low concrete wall with a bay shaped front, with a concrete closet to the rear. Originally a metal frame work would have supported a canvas or wooden roof and walls. Traces of the path to the military camp survive.

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 25 July 2013.

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.

This searchlight battery, which is situated on the cliffs about 25m NNW of the barracks, formed part of the infrastructure of the battery introduced by the Admiralty during the First World War. It comprises two lights, which are approached from the buildings above by a single path with staircases at points where the gradient steepens, but this then bifurcates as the cliff top is reached. They are spaced about 13m apart and are of a standard Naval design akin to those found elsewhere on the South and North Sutors (NH 86NW 9.05, 9.17 and 11.07).

The more westerly light (NH 80812 67306), which is deeply cut into the rocky NNE facing slope, comprises a grass- and bracken-grown reinforced cast concrete platform measuring 5.7m from NE to SW by 3.52m transversely. It is rectangular on plan, except on the NE where there is a polygonal parapet 0.3m thick and 0.69m high. Parts of the metal frame that supported the corrugated iron cladding which once encased the whole of the building still stands on the SW and NW, while the entrance to the building is on the SE. A metal-lined groove on the top of the parapet allowed the shutters to be moved to focus the beam of light shining out on to the firth. The telephone box near the S corner survives intact. It measures 1.07m from NW to SE by 0.92m transversely within concrete walls 0.18m thick and 2.2m high. It has a flat concrete roof, a damaged doorway on the NW and within its whitewashed interior there are sockets in the walls for fixing cables and electrical boards.

The more easterly light (NH 80831 67305) is almost identical, but heavily overgrown. It is also recessed into the rocky cliff top and oriented from ENE to WSW. The entrance is situated on the WSW.

The searchlights are shown on three plans of the battery in the Fort Record Book held in the National Archives at Kew (WO78/5192 12/19, 15/19 and 18/19). The first shows their plan and section in detail, while the others are annotated 'E. L. Emplacement' and ‘Electric Light Emplacements’. This shows their general location in relation to the remainder of the buildings of the battery, while the second (dated October 1913) shows their plan and section in a little more detail.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AKK), 19 February 2020.