Calback, Coast Battery

HU37NE 10.00 centred 3863 7653

See also HU37NE 34.

HU37NE 10.01 HU 38433 76139, HU 38503 76206 and HU 38437 76180 Engine House; Military Camp

HU37NE 10.02 HU 38700 76564 and c.HU 3848 7650 Searchlight Battery

HU37NE 10.03 HU 38568 76514 and HU 38604 76543 Gun-emplacements

HU37NE 10.04 HU 38636 76477 Observation post

HU37NE 10.05 HU 38371 76246 Pier

This coast battery is situated NW of Sullom Voe oil terminal on the summit of The Kames and is made up of a number of brick and concrete buildings. The main battery consists of two gun emplacements, two searchlight emplacements, two engine houses and one observation post. A second engine house and military camp lie 400m S of the main battery (HU37NE 10.01 HU 3843 7614).

Between 1940 and 1944 the battery consisted of two 4-inch guns, the holdfast of both still remain.

J Guy 1995; NMRS MS 810/4, 86-95.

Scheduled as 'The Kames, coastal defence battery... a World War II coastal defence battery sited on the western side of Calback Ness, facing Gluss Isle and Bardister Ness, and with commanding views over the important deep-water anchoarge of Sullom Voe. The remains consist of a two storey Battery Observation Post; two concrete Gun Emplacements; Magazines; Covered Corridors - linking the observation post, the gun emplacements and the emergency/section observation post (the corridors also lead to a number of storerooms and magazines); Search Light Positions (each gun had its own searchlight low down towards the shore); Engine Rooms (the battery was served by two engine rooms); Emergency/Section Observation Post; and Local Air Defence, which was provided by a 3 inch UP (unrotated projectile)'.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 10 February 2003.

An almost complete brick, concrete and steel coast battery is situated on a headland annotated as 'The Kames' on Ordnance Survey maps on the E side of Sullom Voe. The battery lies beyond the Sullom Voe Oil terminal and requires permission from the owners to visit.

Known to the military as Calback Battery, it consists of a Battery Observation Post set to the rear (E) of two gun-emplacements with two searchlight emplacements located to the N and SW and two small engine houses. The accommodation camp, main electricity generating building and water tank were all situated on the coast about 400m to the S.

A notable feature of this battery are the linking semi-underground corridors between the Battery Observation Post and the gun-emplacements, which have been constructed by the cut-and-cover method using corrugated iron shuttering for the roof with the lower part as shuttered concrete walls. Several chambers have been constructed off the corridors.

The coast battery is visible on vertical air photography (CPE/Scot/UK 285, 3430-3432, flown 28 August 1947), which clearly show the accommodation camp, searchlight emplacements, engine houses. The Battery Observation Post and gun-emplacements with linking corridors would appear to still retain camouflage in form of a grass or turf covering at the date of the photographs.

The battery was armed in 1940 with two 4-inch Naval guns, but shows no armament return in 1943 (Public Record Office WO 199/2627 and WO 199/527).

Visited by RCAHMS (DE, AL), 7 October 1998.