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Aberdeen, Footdee, Pocra Quay, Blockhouse
Blockhouse (15th Century)
Site Name Aberdeen, Footdee, Pocra Quay, Blockhouse
Classification Blockhouse (15th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Aberdeen Harbour, New Entrance
Canmore ID 77012
Site Number NJ90NE 19
NGR NJ 9570 0578
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/77012
- Council Aberdeen, City Of
- Parish Aberdeen
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District City Of Aberdeen
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ90NE 19 9570 0578
For Aberdeen Harbour (centred NJ 95 05), see NJ90NE 7.00.
See also:
NJ90NE 22.00 NJ 965 056 Torry Battery
NJ90NE 26 NJ 969 052 Girdle Ness, Battery
NJ90NE 90 NJ 9541 0658 Queen's Links, Battery
NJ90NE 211 NJ c. 9577 0594 Footdee, Battery
For summary of coast defence works around Aberdeen, see under NJ90NE 22.00.
The site of a blockhouse constructed in 1497 and rebuilt in 1532. It was dismantled in the 19th century.
W Kennedy 1818.
No trace of this building now remains.
Visited by OS (JLD) 22 August 1952.
(Additional bibliography cited).
NMRS, MS/712/84.
Nothing is now visible of this blockhouse, which stood in an area that was heavily redeveloped in the 19th century and has since been developed as an industrial site.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 25 June 1996.
The former presence of this blockhouse is commemorated by a stone plaque (erected by DrAlexander Walker in the late 19th century).
Aberdeen City Council [2006].
Publication Account (1997)
To defend the harbour of Aberdeen a blockhouse or fort was erected on the Sandness in the first half of the sixteenth century, its construction having commenced in 1513-14 prior to the battle of Flodden. It may have replaced an earlier fort dating from 1477. By 1542, the sixteenth-century blockhouse was virtually complete. It was constructed of stone and lime, measured 36ft (10.97m) by 18ft (5.49m), and had walls 6ft (1.83m) thick, pierced by gun holes. Instructions in that year that it should be covered with turf indicate that the fort was then still roofless. Across the mouth of the Dee was built a complementary watchtower, which housed a bell to warn of approaching danger. Entrance to the harbour was controlled by a chain which was kept on the surface of the water by masts of ships attached along its length. By 1661, the blockhouse was 'not made use off bot in the tyme of great alarms and when forrayne incursions are feared'. To date there is no archaeological evidence of this structure.
Information from ‘Historic Aberdeen: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1997).
