AA Battery Drumbowie

Drumbowie entrance

A World War II anti-aircraft battery was sited to the north of Glenmavis. Site number N12. Part of the Clyde AA Defences, the site was known as Drumbowie or Ryding, possibly Drumbowie Farm, or Glenmavis.

The Drumbowie battery is significant in that it is one of a small number of former World War II heavy anti-aircraft batteries that were converted for use during the Cold War.

World War II

The battery was equipped with four gun emplacements, command post, GL Radar mat, and an accommodation camp to the south. Aerial photographs taken by the RAF in 1945 show the emplacements to have been heavily overgrown then, suggesting lack of use, and records indicate the battery was not armed during the war.

Cold War

Following a site visit in 2008, investigation of the remains revealed that this was a formerly undocumented postwar AA battery conversion.

Aerial photographs taken of the site taken in 1947 are reported to show that the vegetation had been cleared, and further RAF photographs taken in 1955 showed the addition of two new flat roofed buildings to the site, west of the existing command post. Modifications were also observed to have been made to the gun emplacements.

These changes suggests that the battery had been incorporated into the Cold War anti-aircraft defences created as part of the postwar ROTOR air defence system, a massive air defence radar system created during the 1950s to counter the threat of Soviet bombers, and which controlled anti-aircraft batteries operated by Fighter Command and the British Army.

Site visit 2008

A site visit found that the four emplacements, command post, engine room, and computer room were extant, while the area formerly occupied by the accommodation camp has been planted with native hardwood trees. The farmer confirmed that the tree planting now covers the area where the bases for the camp buildings could be seen.

The command post was found to be of Type 2, unmodified since World War II, and complete with a small annexe (often found demolished), which may have been a toilet. The interior of the post is partly flooded, and the fabric of the building is beginning to decay. The rear of the building is fitted with a large door, similar to that found at the Houston battery, also a conversion.

The four emplacements were found to be of Type H construction, still structurally sound, and with additional features not normally found on the remains, including some electrical conduit and switchgear in two of the attached engine rooms, and a cable duct with its original steel cover in place.

The computer room remains largely intact, with two small rooms surviving in an annexe to the west. One was found to contain a heavy concrete base, which could have supported an engine or pump, while the other had no similar feature, it was provided with a 6 inch square hole leading through the connecting wall with the main room. The building was found to have a sump on the west side, still fitted with its original cover, and possibly extending under the building to connect with a similar feature to the east. The sump to the east had lost its cover, and the water level within could be seen to be similar to that in the western sump.

The engine room appeared to be substantially complete, having been reused as a farm building.

Three brick and concrete manholes were noted, and are assumed to be part of the site's original sewage system.