Monument record MHG7529 - WW2 Battery, Cove

See also Redfern, "20th Century fortifications in the UK" vol IV.
A M Fox, Highland Council, 12.12.01.

Photos in J A Guy, 20th Century Defences, (report nos. 1, 8 & 11).
A M Fox, Highland Council, 09.10.01.

NG89SW 4 814 921.
The extensive remains of a Second World War emergency coast battery, built in 1941. Surviving structural elements include two gun houses in each of which a 6" Mark 7 (naval) gun would have been mounted, two searchlight emplacements, a battery observation post, engine houses or generating rooms, magazines and two emplacements for (possibly 20mm Oerlikon) anti-aircraft guns. The remains of other unidentified buildings can also be seen, while evidence of accommodation blocks survives in the form of concrete floors to the S and W, mainly outwith the area proposed for scheduling. The battery was hastily erected at a time when there was a perceived threat of German attack on the British coast and, for this reason, is known as an emergency battery. The battery, as well as protecting the Loch Ewe anchorage, provided covering fire for an examination vessel which checked the credentials of all ships entering the anchorage. From January to September 1942 the site was manned by 308 Independent Coast Battery (Royal Artillery) and from September 1942 until April 1944 by 154 Independent Battery, after which date it was placed on a care and maintenance basis. There is no record of the battery ever firing in anger.
Information from Historic Scotland, June 1992.

The site was visited and photographed by A Puls of Highland Council in October 2012 as part of a high level assessment of Second World War sites associated with the Loch Ewe Arctic Convoys. Sites visited were confined to significant features and remains located between Poolewe and Cove. <1>