Building record MAB26913 - BALGOWNIE BEACH

World War II pillbox.

World War II pillbox. This World War Two pillbox survives at the rear of Balgownie Beach. Coastal erosion has led to the constant shifting of this pillbox, from its original location in the sand dunes to its present position inside its foundations on the beach. The pillbox has an irregular hexagonal plan with a flat concrete roof. The rear wall is longer than the other five sides and the entrance is in its centre. Each of the other sides is pierced by wide loop hole firing positions. The undermining of the pillbox by the sea has exposed the five concrete sewer pipe foundations which had originally been set vertically, surrounded by a concrete revetting wall, when it was on the dunes. Currently the pillbox is at an angle that reveals further elements of its construction. At the underside an iron latticework has been exposed embedded in the concrete, where it has eroded. The concrete has also started to erode on the exterior of the pillbox, revealing the bars of steel embedded into the wall. Engineers adopted the use of reinforced concrete, aiming to enhance the pillbox's blast resistance and removing the need for expensive armour plating. In 1996 the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland surveyed this pillbox while it still stood in the sand dunes. It measured 5.9m from north to south and up to 2.3m in height. On the date of their visit the interior was choked to the top of the door with sand and rubbish. On visiting the pillbox in 2007 it was possible to access the interior. This pillbox contains a continuous concrete ledge over 50cm deep in front of the five loop holes. Six concrete legs support the ledge and its purpose presumably was support artillery. Due to the confined space that remained there is no blast wall inside, unlike many other pillboxes of this type. At the entrance there are the remains of a wooden door frame, preserved when the pillbox had been covered in sand. Construction of the pillbox involved pouring concrete into wooden shuttering. As a result otherwise identical pillboxes display a wide variety of surface texture. The external walls of this pillbox have the marks of the wooden planks used in its construction and the base of the walls have imprints of sandbags. Sandbags must have been placed around the base of this pillbox while the concrete was still wet. Internally, where there has been less weathering, the wood grain from the shuttering can still be seen imprinted onto the concrete. Site visit in November 2022 as part of the SCAPE Coastal Zone Assessment Survey noted that the entrance the west was then completely buried. There is also a surrounding concrete wall on the eastern side of the pillbox.

SCAPE, 2023, COASTAL ZONE ASSESSMENT SURVEY ABERDEENSHIRE AND CITY OF ABERDEEN: CULLEN TO MILTON NESS, ID 14988 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4866.

Record last edited

Jan 4 2024 3:54PM