Craigiehall

Craigiehall lies to the north west of Edinburgh, and is Headquarters 2nd Division British Army, which has been resident there since April 2000, following a reorganisation of the Land Command after the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR). The site includes Craigiehall House which was built in the early 18th century, and was once the headquarters of the Black Watch Regiment.

The Division comprises three Brigades:

15 (North East) Brigade in York
42 (North West) Brigade in Preston
51 (Scottish) Brigade in Stirling
Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire

It provides the infrastructure and resources and the command and control responsibilities, for the training and administration of all Regular Army, Territorial Army and Cadet units in Scotland and the North of England.

Other Army establishments in 2nd Division�s area of responsibility include:

Army Recruiting and Liaison Staff throughout the Division
The Army Personnel Centre in Glasgow
The Infantry Training Centre at Catterick
The Army Foundation College at Harrogate

History

The Army�s 2nd Division was formed in 1809 by Sir Arthur Wellesley, who was to become the Duke of Wellington.

During World War I, the Division deployed to France as part of Kitchener�s Contemptible Little Army, and spent over four years in the trenches, serving with distinction at the battles of Mons, Marne, the Somme, Ypres ,and Cambrai.

As World War II began, the 2nd Division had to extricate itself through Dunkirk. As the threat of a German invasion receded, 2nd Division deployed to India in 1942, along with the Royal Scots, the Durham Light Infantry, the Lancashire Fusiliers, the Cameron Highlanders, and many more. The Division mounted its most famous engagement there, in 1944, during the Burma Campaign. At the battle of Kohima, it relieved the embattled garrison, and the battle marked the beginning of the end for the Japanese in Burma.

Since 1947, the 2nd Division has changed role a number of times. During the 1950s it amalgamated with the 6th Armoured Division in Germany, and in 1976 was re-roled as an armoured formation, The 2nd Armoured Division. The Division returned to the UK in 1982, after an absence of forty years. As 2nd Infantry Division it settled in York taking over the responsibility of the Army�s Eastern District in 1995. In 1998, the Strategic Defence Review led to a reorganisation of Land Command and the move of Headquarters 2nd Division to Craigiehall, northwest of Edinburgh, in April 2000.

The site includes Cragiehall House, which lies within a formally designed landscape, laid out to the design of Sir William Bruce in 1699. A walled garden dating to 1708 is credited to Alexander McGill. The house later served as the headquarters of the Black Watch Regiment, but is now the Officers' Mess.

Craigiehall was also the site of a Royal Artillery Anti-Aircraft Operations Room (AAOR), built to a standard design during the 1950s, covering the Forth and Rosyth anti-aircraft zone Gun Defended Area (GDA).^[1]] Other than the general location of the AAOR on the Cragiehall site, there is no further information regarding its use, condition, or existence.