AA Battery Kilcreggan

Gun emplacement

A World War II anti-aircraft battery was sited to the north west of Kilcreggan, on the south side of North Ailey Road, Cove. Site number AN3. Part of the Clyde AA Defences, the battery was also known as Hamlet Hill.

The battery was equipped with four emplacements which records indicate mounted four 3.7-inch guns, and had a GL Radar mat to the northeast. Aerial photographs from 1948 appear to show what appears to be a second battery on the site, and this is believed to have been an unarmed dummy battery. These batteries were seen on two distinct sites, one (genuine, according to the records) to the north of South Ailey Road, complete with magazines, and the other (decoy) to the south. A military accommodation camp was sited to the southwest of the road, and from the photographs had at least 37 huts, mostly Nissen huts, with several concrete bases also visible. The site was seen to be under demolition at the time it was photographed.

Site visit

A site visit during March 2007 found the emplacements, command post, and evidence of the magazines still present on the site on the north side of South Ailey Road, together with ground remains of the accommodation camp on the south side of the road.

RCAHMS Research

Examination of a 1941 photograph from flight F309 showed the GL Mat radar to have been octagonal and covering the area to the north east of the extant emplacements to the north of South Ailey Road which can be identified in the current aerial imagery as an area of gorse and scrub. This photograph also showed that at this time a further 4 emplacements existed in the field directly to the east of the Accomodation Camp field. Current aerial imagery shows a track running from north west to the south east and ending partway across the field. This may be the remains of the access road to the other 4 emplacements. The imagery also shows shallow earthworks which may also be associated with the demolition of the site. We were unable to determine whether these were genuine or decoy emplacements.