Charles Hill Battery

The personnel who manned the Charles Hill Battery (and the military camp that preceded it) were accommodated in a camp that occupied the lower, W, side of the promontory, immediately W of the gun emplacement (NT18SE 27.01). An oblique aerial photograph in the National Archives (WO 192/258) shows that in 1941 all the buildings were of timber and pitch-roofed with most, because of the topography, sitting on terraces cut into the natural slope. However, such has been the disturbance to the site since it was decommissioned in the 1950s that it is now very difficult to assess in some cases where any particular building actually stood or, when they can be identified, what the dimensions of them are. The individual elements of the camp are described roughly from W to E.

NT 18413 83813. Sentry Post. The only entrance to the military camp and (later) the gun battery was located in the wire fence that cut off access to the promontory from the W. There are now no visible remains of the sentry post that stood on the N side of the road as it entered the camp and its site is now occupied by a large mature tree.

NT 18408 83794. Guardhouse; Office; Stores. This building stood on the S side of the road at the entrance to the camp and it comprised a long pitch-roofed hut orientated WNW and ESE. Today, the site of the building is indicated by scarps measuring up to 1.5m in height on the WNW and SSW where the platform on which it was supported was levelled into the natural slope. On the date of visit this platform was largely obscured beneath a shroud of large gorse bushes themselves choked with brambles. An open manhole is situated just outwith the SE corner of the platform.

Accommodation at the camp comprised a group of seven timber huts that occupied a steep N-facing slope overlooking Barnhill Bay. The buildings included four accommodation ‘billets’, a latrine, a cookhouse and a dining room.

NT 18461 83813. Billet. The location of this building is marked by a subrectangular platform which is well defined by a backscarp measuring up to 0.6m in height at the W end and on the S side. It is less well defined on the N and E.

NT 18456 83799. Billet. As above, except the backslopes and the platform itself are heavily obscured by dumps of demolition debris and large boulders.

NT 18477 83822. Latrines. The main block of latrines within the Charles Hill battery stood at the foot of a N-facing slope below the cookhouse and dining room and between two pairs of billets. The building is presumed to have been supported on a concrete raft but all that was visible on the date of visit was an amorphous flat area strewn with fragments of ripped up concrete floor, displaced pieces of brick wall and broken white tiles. Immediately N of these remains (on the N side of a modern post and wire fence) is a 0.37m square brick-built pillar which stands 0.5m high, the hollow centre carrying a truncated steel water pipe (NT 18470 83830). The waste from the latrines was taken away from the E end of the building via a pipe that carried it first to a small manhole (NT 18476 83801) a few metres to the E from where the waste was then directed N to another, larger, manhole constructed on the top end of the beach just beyond the low cliff-edge. This manhole marked the WSW end of a pipe measuring at least 150m in length which carried the waste out beyond the low tide limit, supported on a series of concrete pillars. Most of these pillars still survive though the pipe has largely gone. There are at least three manholes along the length of the pipe.

NT 18476 83801. Cookhouse and Dining Room. The 1941 aerial photograph shows that this structure was in fact two conjoined huts, probably reflecting the necessity or convenience of moving hot food to diners over as short a distance as possible. The facility stood between the latrines to the N and the main battery road to the S and all that was visible of it on the date of visit was the vague impression in an area of rank grass of two terraces, one set below the other, both measuring at least 18m in length.

NT 18503 83815. Billet. The site of this building, which was the northernmost of three parallel huts on the E side of the accommodation camp, is marked now only by a poorly defined subrectangular platform.

NT 18503 83800. Billet. The site of this building, which was the middle one of the three on the E side of the accommodation camp, is marked now only by a poorly defined subrectangular platform.

NT 18504 83791. Sergeant’s Mess. This building was the southernmost of the three on the E side of the accommodation camp and was situated immediately N of and below the main battery road. The platform on which the building stood is defined along its S side by a brick revetment 0.3m high. Elsewhere, the detail is obscured by a cover of rank vegetation.

NT 18458 83748. Officers’ Mess; Officers’ Quarters

The Officers’ Mess and Quarters were situated in a building that stood on the S side of the battery, between the road leading to the engine house (NT18SE 27.03) and the shore of the River Forth. It comprised a long range orientated NE and SW, and two short wings, the whole forming a U-plan arrangement open to the NW. The building stood on a platform excavated into the SE-facing slope but, except at the SW end where the scarp of this slope (1.2m high) is still visible, the platform and its backscarp are entirely shrouded in dumps of demolition debris and large boulders. Waste water from this building was carried to a point beyond the low water mark by a pipe that descended the beach and into the River Forth carried on a series of concrete pillars.

NT 18495 83763. Building. This building stood immediately N of the spur road that led to the engine house (NT18SE 27.03) and all that is now visible of it is the rectangular concrete raft on which it once stood. It measures at least 17m from WNW to ESE by 5m transversely and has been set on a platform excavated into the gentle SSW-facing slope. The southern edge of the raft is lined with ‘LONDON BRICK COMPANY’ bricks and there are bolts here that once secured the framework of the building.

NT 18491 83774. Water Tank. The site of this water tank was not positively identified on the date of visit but at its supposed approximate location on a S-facing slope there is weed -grown flattish area measuring about 4m across.

NT 18519 83754. Institute Canteen. This building was one of three that were situated between the main camp road to the N and the engine room (NT18SE 27.03) to the S. All that could be discerned on the date of visit was a hollow measuring about 20m in length from N to S.

NT 18523 83751. NAAFI. The central of the three buildings that were situated between the main camp road and the engine room (NT18SE 27.03) housed a ‘NAAFI’ and it is quite likely that it was linked by a passage to the canteen immediately to the N. On the date of visit all that was visible of it was an ill-defined grass-grown hollow orientated E and W, representing the location of the platform dug into the S-facing slope to support the structure.

NT 18524 83743. Building. The function of the southernmost of the three buildings that were situated between the main camp road and the engine room (NT18SE 27.03) is unknown. All that was visible of it on the date of visit was a subrectangular weed-grown hollow in which broken fragments of concrete could be felt underfoot.

NT 18508 83735. Store. This ‘store’ stood immediately W of the engine house (NT18SE 27.03) on the opposite side of the termination of the southerly of the two camp roads. It was orientated NNE and SSW with a pitched roof and built on a rectangular concrete raft that is now grass-grown. The remains of a low brick wall are visible around the edge of the platform.

NT 18503 83744. Coal Yard. All that is now visible of this coal yard is a weed-strewn shallow depression measuring about 5m square immediately S of the road leading to the engine house (NT18SE 27.03) some 19m to the SE. The southern edge of the depression is obscured by a dump of boulders.

Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (J. Sherriff; A. McCaig) 25 July 2022.