Rubha Nan Sasan, Cove Battery

This engine-house is situated in the lee of the rocky outcrop immediately below and 6.5m to the W of the W gun emplacement (NG89SW 4.0). It is rectangular on plan and measures 5.16m from NNE to SSW by 3.64m transversely within reinforced cast corrugated iron sheet-shuttered concrete walls 0.3m thick and 2.4m high. The flat roof still retains part of its heather capping by which it was camouflaged from the air, while the NNE elevation is distinguished by a double doorway. There is a single central window in the WSW elevation, which appears to have been reduced in size, while what appears to have been another smaller window off-centred just below the roofline in the SSW elevation may have been provided to dispel fumes from the engine’s exhaust. A small rectangular enclosure that was once attached to this wall close to the SE corner of the building possibly housed a fuel tank. A large chunk of masonry has been removed from its SSW side possibly to allow the installation of a larger container. Internally, there is a circular vent in the corrugated iron sheet-shuttered ceiling. This contrasts with the smooth surface of the walls and while the former has been whitewashed, the latter appears first to have been colour-washed predominately brown before being blackwashed. By contrast, the upper section of the SSW wall is now white, while its lower section is brown. Wooden plugs and marks in the paintwork reveal the former position of electrical equipment, while two small apertures at the foot of the W wall once conveyed cabling out of the building. Two whitewashed rectangular blocks on the ESE side of the compartment supported a single engine. The smaller block on the SSW displays two recesses for the plates which once held the bolts by which it was attached, while its larger companion to its NNE exhibits six similar features. It is likely that a fuel pipe entered the building through a circular aperture in the wall above.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AKK), 4 September 2019.

HES surveyed the engine house (NG 81473 92142) at Rubha nan Sasan with plane-table on 4 September 2019 at a scale of 1:100. The resultant plan and section were redrawn in vector graphics software at a scale of 1:200.