Charles Hill Battery, Lyon Light

HES surveyed the lyon light emplacement at Charles Hill Battery on 29 August 2022 with tape and laser measurer at scale of 1:100. The resultant plan and section were redrawn in vector graphics software at a scale of 1:100.

This searchlight emplacement stands on the NE side of the promontory, close to the low sea cliff that marks the high tide limit on the S side of Barnhill Bay. The rectangular reinforced concrete building measures 2.14m from NE to SW by 1.53m transversely within walls 0.45m thick and the flat roof is 0.15m thick. There is a doorway (0.77m wide) at the SE end of the SW end-wall and two apertures or windows occupy the N and E corners respectively. The internal width of these openings is only 0.57m but externally they take in all the space that would have otherwise been occupied by the corners of the structure, thus creating a very wide angle of view. A narrow slot measuring 0.77m in width by 0.15m in height is situated high up on the NE end just below the ceiling which is 2.13m above the concrete floor. Given the absence of a ventilation slot in the ceiling (as seen at the other three searchlight emplacements - NT18SE 27.02) this slot may have served that same function. The building is completely devoid of any of its original fittings other than two horizontal metal bars attached to the NE end about halfway up the wall. A ceramic pipe that descends from the E corner of the floor inside the building and exits the SE side close the E corner may have been a conduit for the electricity supply to the Lyon Light that once occupied the interior.

Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (J. Sherriff; A. McCaig) 26 July 2022.