Building record MHG55561 - Observation Post, Duisdale

Red brick observation post situated on the common grazing about Duisdale, just to the south of the old school at Duisdale, and known as Isle of Oronsay post. It was originally used by the local Home Guard for surveillance and observation duties. A local resident remembers her father and others, who were in the Sleat Platoon of the Home Guard, using this post. After the war, the Royal Observer Corps continued to use it as an observation post until it was closed in 1961.

The building is made of red brick, 9.9cm deep, mounted on a concrete plinth. It has two chambers. The inner chamber has a permanent corrugated iron roof and is accessed by a small doorway in the centre of the dividing wall. The outer chamber has a detachable roof, which currently (2011) lying a few feet away. One wooden beam with 3 split pins attached to fasten on the roof is still in place while another beam is lying on the ground close by. The post for the map plinth is still in situ.

Building dimensions: width: 2.06 metres. Length: 2.85 metres, height to plinth at rear: 1.53 metres; at front 1.44 metres. Concrete plinth: 2.29 x 3.10 metres.

The post was replaced in 1961 by an underground observation post designed to meet the new threat of nuclear wars. This new post, just to the east of the Sleat Primary school playing field at NG 655 069, was closed in 1991 and has now been filled.

Further information about ROC posts in the Highlands is available on the Subterranea Britannica website www.subbrit.org.uk <1>