The Submarine Mining Station at Port Laing

The most obvious remains are those of the Guvy Pier . . .

. . . which once carried a twin-track narrow gauge railway line.

The 1915 OS map shows the railway running along the shore to a group of buildings just off the sand at Port Laing beach.

This aerial photograph from 1937 shows the site in a wider context.

There were gun batteries at Carlingnose, and on Inchgarvie – manned by Royal Engineers from the Carlingnose Barracks. There was also a gun battery at the Coastguard Station. This was all in alignment with the directives:

1. Mines should only be placed under the protection of the guns of ships or forts.

2. They should be placed about 1000 yards in front of these guns.
There were search lights on Inchgarvie and at the Coastguard station, and perched on the cliff top above the pier was an Observation Post.

Port Laing Buildings

Some of the buildings at shore level were originally the workshops, stores and control room for the Submarine Mining Station.

This site was extended in 1913 when the small block of buildings about half way to the pier was built as married quarters for the Royal Artillery officers and men who manned the gun batteries at Carlingnose, Coastguard and Inchgarvie batteries.

This a much later view of the site on the shore, showing more details of the buildings.

The railway track has gone, it ran along the line of the road.

This sketch was provided by Laurie Alexander, a bombardier in the Royal Engineers, who was the last man to leave the site when it closed in March 1957.
The Garage and Workshop were probably the mine store and workshop.

The Admin block may have been the Control Room – with a row of windows looking over the Forth.
The two-storey block was a dormitory upstairs with Quarter Master Stores and Dining / Mess Room downstairs. Were these the “handsome Officers’ Mess” referred to by Cadell?

The buildings no longer exist, but they sat on a solid concrete base, which still exists under these modern houses at Port Laing.

The Carlingnose Battery and Submarine Mining Observation Station

The Carlingnose battery is at the top left of this view across the barracks. You can just see the gun barrels pointing down the river. The observation station is perched to their left.

This image of the Observation Post is from Fife World War One and Two Defenses Volume 1. A survey by John Guy 1992 – 1994.

Finally, this image which was supplied by Dunfermline Carnegie Library, and is reproduced by permission of DC Thomson & Co Ltd. It shows the shore station at Port Laing, with the remains of a wooden slipway running across the beach.

The image is undated, but I suspect the slipway dates from the 1930s when the site at Port Laing was used by the RASC to supply ammunition to the gun batteries on islands in the Forth.