AA Battery Ballymenach

Ballymenach Battery

A World War II anti-aircraft battery was sited near Kilchousland, some two miles northeast of Campbeltown on the eastern or shore side of the B842 road to Peninver. The battery was known as Ballymenach.

The battery was equipped with four emplacements, a command post, sewage plant, engine room, and accommodation camp to the northwest, across the road.

Local records indicate that the battery was constructed between 1940 and 1941, by members of the Pioneer Corps who were also working on the construction of the new RAF Machrihanish to the north west. The battery would have have formed part of the Campbeltown Loch defences, however there are no records of guns being mounted:

I took the opportunity of asking James a few questions concerning the World War II anti-aircraft battery at Kilchousland and he confirmed what I already suspected - that there were never any guns positioned on any of the four brick-built sites. He identified some of the other buildings there - including a sewage disposal plant, descending the hill in three steps, and a ruined diesel-generating plant on the seaward side of the overgrown track leading downhill from the field-gate opposite Ballymenach road-end - and informed me that some 30 Nissen huts had stood along the upper side of the field, next to the road, of which nothing remains visible, not even the foundations.

By Hill and Shore, Angus Martin.^[1]

Site visit

A site visit during June 2007 found the emplacements, command post, and water treatment plant to be substantially complete, with little decay or damage evident other than weeds growing around the periphery of the various structures, and relatively minor flooding of the command post - a consequence of being partly buried.

The water treatment, or sewage, plant is a relatively unusual remnant, and lies midway between the command post, descending the hill in three steps towards the battery.

Approximately 50 metres north is a concrete base next to a pile of rubble, and this is reported to be the remains of an engine room which would have provided power for the site.

The camp was described as lying to west of the road and comprising of some thirty Nissen huts, but there is no evidence of this installation, or of any hut bases on the ground.