Whinhill Observation Post

Hilltop observation post

The remains of a brick built and cement rendered building lie on the hilltop above Greenock's Whinhill golf club.

The building contains one small room and one larger L shaped room, both being cement rendered internally to a height of about three feet. With no surviving evidence of any collapsed roof structure, this suggests a wooden roof, rather than concrete, which has been lost to the weather over the years. The east side of the building shows evidence of a steel ladder having been installed, possibly leading to an observation platform on the roof. There are also cut-outs in the rendering, suggesting the roof platform may have extended outwards past three sides of the building.

A slightly unusual trig point lies nearby, and is located not on the summit of the hill, but on a shoulder. This suggests the summit itself was probably found to be unsound, and the reference point was fixed to the closest instance of sound bedrock.

Nearby are the concrete remains of what appears to be the base of an antenna mast.

Experimental radar station

Information has been received regarding the a location on the Whinhill Golf Course, north of the fourth fairway, as the site of an experimental radar station, 600 yards south east of a Post Office cable pole, and the grid reference given with this report has been marked on the map below.

Revisiting the post showed a number of unidentified features that would be explained by such an installation, and these are detailed in the photographs. On the floor of the larger main room are trenches leading to conduit at the base of the outer walls, which could have been used to lead cables outside the building. The smaller room has the the same type of ground conduits at the base of the outer walls, and adjacent to interior wall ducts. The photographs also show the concrete base and steel rods remaining with other debris on the hill, which could have been the support for some form of experimental antenna. Unless there are two, or three, similar bases lost in the surrounding ground, which could have supported a much larger structure, this is unlike a standard lattice mast base, which would have at least three or four fixings in the concrete to provide a stable base for a taller structure, and not the two fixings which extend from the concrete.

We can only guess at the original appearance and use of these items as we have not encountered any details of similar installations so far.