Portkil Degaussing Inspection Station

Portkil degaussing inspection station was a World War II facility located on the southern point of the Rosneath peninsula.

Apart from enemy submarines and aircraft, Atlantic convoys came under pressure from a sophisticated new hazard in the form of the magnetic mine. Unlike a conventional mine, where the vessel had to make contact with the mine to detonate it, magnetic mines had sensors that could detect the magnetic variation caused by the steel hulls of passing vessels, and trigger their detonation. To minimise this hazard, vessels were tested at degaussing inspection stations such as Portkil, where the magnetic variation could be measured, and the hulls degaussed (demagnetised) using specialised equipment to minimise the signal they produced. WRENs posted to the station were billeted in a local house known as The Barn.^[1]

The precise location of the station, or any of it facilities, is unknown.