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Rubha Nan Sasan, Cove Battery

Gun Emplacement(S) (Second World War)

Site Name Rubha Nan Sasan, Cove Battery

Classification Gun Emplacement(S) (Second World War)

Alternative Name(s) Loch Ewe Defences

Canmore ID 252848

Site Number NG89SW 4.01

NGR NG 81488 92143

NGR Description NG 81488 92143 and NG 81526 92126

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/252848

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Gairloch
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Ross And Cromarty
  • Former County Ross And Cromarty

Archaeology Notes

NG89SW 4.01 81488 92143 and 81526 92126

The two brick and concrete gun-emplacements are relatively complete and both have holdfasts for the gun mounting in place. The two gun-emplacements have steel beams made by Dorman, Long and Cold of Middlesborough. The steelwork at the front is now supported by 'ACRO' jacks and is now believed to be in a dangerous condition. There are various compartments and ready-use ammunition lockers to the rear of both emplacements.

The battery was armed with 2 x 6-inch MkVII guns on Naval mountings from HMS Iron Duke which were installed in July 1941 (J Guy 2000).

Visited by RCAHMS (DE, GS, JG), August 2000

Activities

Field Visit (3 September 2019)

Two gun emplacements are situated within 75m of the sea, on a NE-facing terrace immediately above a rocky foreshore. Each was armed with a 6-inch gun and their housings, which are positioned 30m apart and at slightly different orientations from NE to SW, mirror one another architecturally except where the outcropping rock induces a change of design. This is most marked at the entrances which proved especially sensitive to the local topography.

Each housing is rectangular on plan and provided with an apsidal front. They measure about 14m from NE to SW by 10m within reinforced cast concrete walls 0.31m thick and 2.6m high. Their stairwells, which are located at their rear corners, vary in length and depth while generally extending as wings at right angles. However, the stairwell at the W corner of the NW housing is exceptional in being orientated SW, while the approach to the E stairwell of the SE housing has been lengthened beyond the porch by the addition of low brick walls to each side, although that on the N side has collapsed. The housings are distinguished by overhanging flat reinforced cast concrete roofs, the edges of which comprise a series of relatively shallow but sharply cut angles that were intended to break up the lines when seen from the air. They have been waterproofed with a layer of bitumen, but this has subsequently dripped down and discoloured the walls. Hooks and nails under the overhangs and attached to the walls below were provided for camouflage netting. The external elevations of the housings differ in texture, as those of the SE housing have been shuttered with planking, while corrugated iron sheeting has been used to form the longer side walls of its neighbour. It is difficult to differentiate the original camouflage paint from later staining, but there are faint traces of what may be a reddish-brown wash on the walls.

The housings each comprise two compartments - a crew shelter to the rear and a gun emplacement at the front which looks out across the mouth of the loch. Each crew shelter is approached by a short corridor extending NE from the foot of the E stairwell. They are rectangular on plan and measure 7.3m from NW to SE by 3.3m transversely within reinforced cast concrete walls 0.31m thick and 2.6m high. They are entered from a doorway on the SE by the NE corner and an adjacent window provides an outlook from the interior onto the stairs. A second window is situated centrally in the SW wall, but its outlook is severely limited by a small blast wall that has been attached to the back of both buildings (see below). The ceiling and walls of the shelters have been shuttered with corrugated iron sheeting and in the W shelter the latter has evidently buckled above the window looking out on to the corridor during construction on account of the weight of the poured concrete. The ceiling is whitewashed, while the walls have also been colour-washed cream and brown above and below dark horizontal bands. There is an aperture in the ceiling for a chimney that was once connected to a stove adjacent to the SW wall and there is vent penetrating the NW wall just below the ceiling, which emerges in the corridor leading to the W stairwell. There are also pegs in the walls for boards that possibly carried electrical equipment.

The E and W corridors provide access to the gun compartment, which is entered at the SE and SW corners. This compartment measures about 11m from NE to SW by 10.2m transversely, but while the ceiling and walls in the SE housing are largely smooth from having been shuttered with planks, those in the NW housing have been largely shuttered with corrugated iron sheets. However, both have whitewashed ceilings and exhibit traces of a light brown colour wash on the walls. A brick-built freestanding unit, measuring 7.95m in length, 1.19m in breadth and 1.72m in height, occupies the space at the rear of the compartments between the E and W corridors. A scar on the roof of the SE housing indicates that the NW-facing wall originally reached up to the ceiling, but this was subsequently reduced and is now the same height as that in its neighbour. The unit is capped by a single concrete slab and contains six ammunition lockers which face SE. Those in the SE housing are slightly deeper than those in its counterpart to the NW. Two pairs of cement skimmed steel pillars set in the side walls of the housing about 3m apart support the massive horizontal beams that not only carry the roof and the canopy, but also brace the very large rectangular opening that allowed the gun a wide field of view. The circular, partly grass-grown holdfast in each emplacement is centred beneath the canopy and measures 1.03mm in diameter. Both originally comprised 18 bolts, but there is in addition semi-circle of small shallow depressions to their SW which may have been also employed to fix the guns to the concrete floor. The low random rubble wall forming the apse below the gun barrels at the front of the housings are irregular on plan to help break up and camouflage their outline.

The remains of a small brick-built baffle protecting the SW-facing window of the crew shelter is attached by its flat concrete roof to that of the NW housing. This is not matched in the SW housing, where, instead, a small hut is situated in the same location. It is rectangular on plan and measures 3.08m from NW to SE by 1.86m transversely within cast concrete walls 0.3m thick and 2.14m high. It is distinguished by a broad concrete threshold on the SE where there is a door and there is also a window in the centre of the SW wall. There is little of note within the interior, apart from an aperture for the chimney of a stove situated above the SW corner. The ceiling and walls are whitewashed but broken by dark horizontal bands. There is also a notice on the NE wall that reads ‘No Smoking’, which is painted in white upon a black background. This hut may have been a small office, but it would appear to be an addition, as its flat overhanging roofline is slightly lower than that of the gun housing to which it is attached.

Although there are differences of detail, the architecture of these gun emplacements is similar to those at the Emergency Coastal Battery on Innes Links, Moray (NJ26NE 30.01 and NJ26NE 30.02).

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AKK), 3 September 2019.

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