Craigmaddie Muir Decoy Site

Since this site contains a limited number of specific features which fall within our area of interest, and nearly all are related, these have been gathered together and presented on this single page for convenience, rather than treated as independent subjects.

Cragmaddie Muir decoy site 2007

The Craigmaddie Muir Decoy Site was a large decoy system installed during World War II, intended to lure enemy bombers away from their intended targets. The site lies in open countryside to the north of Glasgow, beneath the Campsie Fells, and roams from Craigmaddie Muir in the west to Blairskaith Muir in the east.

Records report three sites relating to this decoy, located relatively close to one another, and summarised below rather than listed separately, so they may be viewed on a single map. The consistency of the names applied to these sites (by RCAHMS) seems to leave a little to be desired, however these have been retained in the hope of avoiding further confusion by changing them in an way.

On this page... (hide)

Blairskaith Muir Civil Starfish Decoy
Craigmaddie Muir Control Bunker - Newlands
Craigmaddie Muir Decoy Control Bunker - Branziet Burn
Craigmaddie Muir Gun Emplacements - Unreported
- Emplacement details
Photographs
External links
Aerial views
Map

Blairskaith Muir Civil Starfish Decoy

Record indicate that a World War II Starfish decoy site was located on the southern slopes of Blairskaith Muir. Part of the Clyde AA Defences. Site number SF13c. The site was also known as Craigmaddie Muir.

The decoy site was visible on RAF aerial photographs taken in 1945, and comprised a number of firebreak enclosures that would have contained fire baskets which held burning oil, coal, and other material to create controlled decoy fires intended to attract enemy bombers from their intended targets. This would therefore have been a QF (fire) decoy. The site covered an area of some 300 square metres, but was no longer visible on a later aerial survey, carried out in 1988. Records indicate that the control bunker lay 1 kilometre west of the decoy site.

The same record reports "a second bunker 600 m to the west", but does not definitely associate it with this decoy, instead, referring to the existence of further QF and QL (lighting) decoys in the surrounding area.

Craigmaddie Muir Control Bunker - Newlands

Records indicate that a World War II Starfish control bunker was located on the southern slopes of Blairskaith Muir. Part of the Clyde AA Defences. Site number SF13c. The bunker site was also known as Newlands.

The bunker was visible on RAF aerial photographs taken in 1945, and also in those of a later aerial survey carried out in 1988, and lay 1 kilometre east of the decoy site.

Craigmaddie Muir Decoy Control Bunker - Branziet Burn

Records indicate that a World War II Starfish Control Bunker was located on the southern slopes of Blairskaith Muir, on the north side of a minor road leading to Mugdock. Part of the Clyde AA Defences. Site number SF13c. The bunker site was also known as Branziet Burn.

The bunker is described as a substantial brick and concrete structure, recessed into the hillside and measuring some 9 m x 16 m x 3 m high, with a concrete roof, and a baffle wall protecting the entrance. The design was noted to be similar to that seen at Drumnessie .

While the two bunkers appear to remain visible at the locations given, there is no evidence of any significant remains relating to the decoy itself.

Craigmaddie Muir Gun Emplacements - Unreported

A site visit in May 2008 discovered four unfinished concrete gun emplacements, equipped with heavy anti-aircraft gun holdfasts, installed on the moor about 500 metres west of the Newlands bunker. Grid references: NS59897626, NS59927626, NS59947624 and NS59957622.

This anti-aircraft battery is believed to be a lost or forgotten site, as there are no references to the site in the records we have obtained from RCAHMS or the Royal Artillery, or in published locations of World War II defences in the UK.

There are two known, but lost, batteries reported in the general area, numbered GNG5 and GNG6, which have been shown on the map below. Although grid references have been recorded for these batteries, there do not appear to be any signs of their existence, suggesting the references are in error, or that these batteries were planned, but never constructed.

Emplacement details

The emplacements are of a relatively standard design, containing the holdfast to which the guns would have been fixed withen them, but their unfinished state is unusual, and not known to exist at any other Scottish battery reported date. Each consists of a concrete circle 3 metres in diameter and installed flush with the ground, surrounding a bolt circle one metre in diameter, to which an anti-aircraft gun could be temporarily mounted on arrival, allowing the guns to be placed into service immediately in case of attack by enemy aircraft - the guns could then be permanently mounted when convenient. The holdfast structure itself is a steel and concrete cage which extends at least four feet under the surface; the bolts connect to a series of steel rods encased in the structure, with a precast channel let into the surface of the emplacement to carry cabling from the predictor machine in the command post to control gun laying. The layout of the emplacements suggests the command post was to be built to the south, but there is no evidence of any other structures present in the immediate area. It was not unusual to build anti-aircraft batteries close to decoy sites, but in this case there are at least two disused pit shafts very close by, which would have prevented any substantial building programme. The holdfasts themselves may also have been unserviceable items, placed as decoys to supplement the Starfish decoys which were located in the surrounding area.