Kincraig Battery
Searchlight Emplacement (Second World War)
Site Name Kincraig Battery
Classification Searchlight Emplacement (Second World War)
Alternative Name(s) Forth ; Earlsferry; Kincraig Point; Kincraig Hill; Craig Heugh
Canmore ID 271442
Site Number NT49NE 44.04
NGR NT 46960 99931
NGR Description c. NT 4697 9993
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/271442
- Council Fife
- Parish Elie
- Former Region Fife
- Former District North East Fife
- Former County Fife
NT49NE 44.04 4697 9993
A single searchlight emplacement is visible on vertical air photographs (106G/Scot/UK 4, Part II, 6165-7, flown 14 April 1946) to the SE of the gun-emplacements.
Information from RCAHMS (DE), March 2005
No evidence could be seen on the date of visit for the searchlight emplacement at this location.
Visited by RCAHMS (DE), 16 May 2007
Field Visit (10 November 2023)
The remains of this building are situated on a heavily overgrown platform which is terraced into the foot of the cliff below the Kincraig Battery about 5m above the beach. It comprises two phases, the earliest of which is rectangular on plan and measures from 5m E to W by 4.8m transversely. A random rubble wall with a timber component about 2.4m in height is built against the N face of the cliff, while remnants of the E wall and the roof indicate that the building was clad with asbestos. The later phase is situated largely to the W of its predecessor and on a slightly more southerly building line. This building, which is also rectangular on plan and measures 5.4m from N to S by 3.4m transversely and about 2m in height, comprises a brick wall built against the cliff face and a return forming the beginning of the E wall. This preserves the traces of a doorway close to the building’s NE corner. Large fragments of concrete on the SW side of the platform possibly derive from the flat roof of this building.
The building is identified as an ‘E L Emplacement’ (Electric Light Emplacement) or a searchlight, on a plan of the battery’s layout entitled ‘Secret Copy No.7’, dated ‘22.7.42.’, which is included in the Fort Record Book held by the National Archives at Kew (WO192/255). It was reached from the battery on the cliff top above by the same zigzag path which served the Beach Guard Hut (NT49SE 44.23) to its W. It is visible on an aerial photograph (M/081/E309 02247) flown on 6 April 1941, when the first phase of the building was paired with a comparable structure to its E (NT49NE 44.26). The latter was demolished when the battery was reconfigured in 1941-2, while this searchlight continued in use following a reconstruction noted on another plan in the Fort Record Book entitled ‘Secret Copy DRG No. East/FSS/51’, again dated ‘22.7.42’. It was then paired with a new searchlight (NT49NE 44.7) situated on the cliff face below the Radar Station (NT49NE 44.1) (Barclay and Morris 2019, 216 Fig.1, 217, 218 Fig.2). Other aerial photographs (106G /UK/0981 4344 and 4346) flown on 30 November 1944, confirm that both emplacements were built to the same design with flat roofs.
Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (A. T. Welfare, A. K. Kilpatrick), 10 November 2023
