Anti-invasion defences – Downing Point Battery

 
The Downing Point battery was first proposed in 1912.

Construction was eventually undertaken very quickly, in September–October 1914, of a very simple gun platform, and ancillary structures in a protected area behind. Two 4.7-inch guns removed from Kinghorn were mounted.

Plans of the battery and the camp show strong defences, comprising a close defence of barbed wire entanglements firing trenches and four blockhouses, and accommodation for the infantry detachment that guarded it, and the garrison of Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers who operated it. There was an outer ring of six blockhouses, at about 400m from the battery.

Plan of the Downing Point battery and its outer defences

Plan and cross-section of one of the Downing Point blockhouses