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Gleniffer Braes Decoy
The Gleniffer Braes Decoy was a World War II Starfish decoy site which was located on Gleniffer Braes, south west of Paisley, on the B775 Gleniffer Road. The decoy lay to the north of the road, with a control bunker to the south. Part of the Clyde AA Defences. Site number SF13d. The site may also have been known as Sergeant Law, the location of the bunker, and Foxbar, which is nearby. The same location is given Site No Q83a, and referred to as Abbottsinch, Gleniffer Braes.
The site was visible on aerial photographs taken by the RAF in 1946, and also in later images taken in 1988, with the control bunker being located some 500 metres across the road, south east of the decoy itself.
The actual decoy site has been lost to the construction of a electrical substation on the site, however an excavation and survey of the site was sponsored by Scottish Power prior to commencement of work to upgrade the Neilston Substation in 2005. The survey revealed the presence of "a gun emplacement, nine concrete plinths, and a section of track".
Remains of the control bunker for the decoy can still be found across the road, about 200 metres southeast of the substation, and these show the bunker to be of brick and concrete construction, with additional protection for the interior being provided by earth banking.
Anti-aircraft battery
The same area has also been recorded as the site of the AA Battery Foxbar, which was a World War II heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) battery.
Site visit
A site visit was carried out during 2007, and found that the bunker was still in place, and was of similar design to the bunker at Whitelees Moor, Greenock. Internally, it consists of only one room, provided with the usual escape or viewing hatch in the roof. At some time, a tall thin window has been let into the wall at the north west corner. This does not appear to be an original feature, although it would have given a view of the decoy site. The earth covering has been lost from the roof and most of the walls, leaving only a small earth bank around the building. World War II aerial photographs had shown another small building in the field next to that of the control bunker, but all that appeared to remains of this was a small mound of earth. At the time of the visit, the area of the decoy site was fenced off, with Danger signs attached, and nothing which may have been associated with the decoy could be seen from outside this fence.
External links
Aerial views
- Old OS maps
- Nearby geocaches
- Bing Maps
- OS Get-a-map™
- Fly to in Google Earth
- SABRE - Maps (has many options) WiP - Needs lat/lon edit!
- Flash Earth
- EarthTools - disabled
- Coming
Map
⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8100904 lon=-4.4765183 link='Gleniffer Braes Decoy' :)
⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8069852 lon=-4.4729751 link='Gleniffer Braes Bunker' :)
⚠ (:gma-point lat=55.8100261 lon=-4.4797064 link='Gleniffer Braes Excavation site' :)
⚠ (:gma-map view=sat :)
⚠ [[!World War II]]
⚠ [[!Clyde AA Defences]]
⚠ [[!Starfish Decoy]]
⚠ (:WPCategoriesList:)
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⚠ (:tracetrails:)