Description

1878-81. 3 polygonal batteries, protected by ditches, on NW and S headlands. Rubble external walls with barbettes, partly subterranean. Massive casemates and magazines, some lined with brick, at rear of gun-platforms. No 1 (NW) and No 3 (S) batteries are dated 1880; they are less altered than No 2 (NE) Battery. Later gun emplacements built in both world wars.

Statement of Interest

Scheduled Ancient Monument. Built to protect the port of Leith. Plans were prepared by Colonel John Terbury Moggridge but based upon sketches made some 20 years earlier. The contractors were Messrs Hill & Co who had built the powerful fortifications at Portsmouth and Spithead. The three batteries are connected by a military road. The batteries mounted four 18 ton guns. To support them a battery with two 18 ton guns was erected at Kinghorn Ness, 2 3/4 miles to NW, but nothing survives of this. Guns in the NW and NE batteries were mounted on a platform which revolved on a concrete floor, and that in the S battery on a granite floor. Inchkeith Lighthouse (1803-4) and Lord Herbert of Lea's Memorial are listed separately.

Re-scheduled area 14 February 2002.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
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  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)