Speaker Evening - Mr Allan Kilpatrick - First World War Defences of the Forth

On Thursday 21st January, the speaker at the Rotary Club of South Queensferry was Allan Kilpatrick, an archaeologist with Historic Environment Scotland who specialises in researching military sites. His theme was WW1 Defences of the Forth. As Allan explained, there were outer, middle and inner lines of devence, and as South and North Queensferry were crucial to the inner defence of the fleet anchorage and later Rosyth, he would concentrate on batteries and installations in and around these towns. Probably the best preserved gun emplacement of this period in Scotland is to be found at The Forts, the property of Rotarian Allan Smith just to the east of the Forth Rail Bridge. The associated searchlight emplacements were on the site of the building formerly known as the 'Pipers' Cave' almost below the bridge itself.  Inch Garvie, which was heavily fortified, was joined to the central cantilever of the Forth Bridge by a foot-bridge and step ladder to enable troops to reach the batteries by walking along the railway line, making a boat unnecessary. On the Ffe side, batteries, now almost hidden, were located beside the Coastguard Houses on the point. An interesting and little-known fact was the amount of land defences build during WW1. Dalment Estate had many earth and sand-bag block houses (forerunners of the pill-boxes of WW2) and near Dunbar there are in existance more defensive trenches than still remain in Belgium!

Allan Kilpatrick was introduced by Neil Mckinlay. President Kate Gibb invited Allan to come again and tell us more about this fascinating aspect of local history.