Torry Battery | |
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Torry Aberdeen, Scotland | |
Coordinates | 57°8′31″N2°3′21″W / 57.14194°N 2.05583°W |
Site information | |
Open to the public | Yes |
Site history | |
Built | 1859-61 |
Materials | Stone |
The Torry Battery (formerly referred to as Torry Point Battery) is an artillery battery near Torry in Aberdeen, Scotland, which has overlooked the city's harbour since 1860. It was originally constructed for nine guns with a defensible barracks at the rear. In 1881 the battery mounted three 10-inch Smooth bore guns and five 68-Pounder Smooth bore guns. [1]
The battery was adapted for two 6-inch Breech Loading (BL) guns which were mounted by 1906. [2] These were used for practise by the local artillery volunteer unit, the 1st Aberdeenshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers). [3]
Both guns were operational during the First World War. [4]
During the First and Second World Wars it was used to defend the city and was finally decommissioned in 1956. [5] It is now a scheduled monument. [6]
Construction began on Torry Point Battery in 1857 and concluded in 1861. Some sources claim that the battery was constructed to defend against France under Napoleon III, however, city council records and Napoleon III's history of alliance and cooperation with Britain contradict this. [7]
Torry Battery was built as a long overdue replacement of the 1780 battery on the north side of the River Dee. Records show that the Board of Ordinances made its first request for repairs on the existing battery in 1806 and continued do do so until the eventual construction of Torry Battery. [8]
In the 1890's the battery was partially dismantled and decommissioned, but was reconstructed from 1904-06 and manned during World War I. [7] The original gun platforms were partly demolished to accommodate for new weapons technology in the First World War and were updated again in the Second World War. [7]
Kincardineshire or the County of Kincardine, also known as the Mearns, is an historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of north-east Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north, and by Angus on the south-west.
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Torry is a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, lying on the south bank of the River Dee. It was historically part of the county of Kincardineshire and was absorbed into the city of Aberdeen in 1891.
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The BL 6-inch gun Mark VII was a British naval gun dating from 1899, which was mounted on a heavy travelling carriage in 1915 for British Army service to become one of the main heavy field guns in the First World War, and also served as one of the main coast defence guns throughout the British Empire until the 1950s.
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The 1st Aberdeenshire Artillery Volunteers was a part-time unit of the British Army raised in Aberdeenshire and neighbouring counties in Scotland in 1860. Its successor units served with 51st (Highland) Division through many of the major battles on the Western Front during the First World War. In the Second World War one of its regiments escaped the surrender of the 51st (Highland) Division in 1940 and went on to serve as heavy artillery in the Italian Campaign. The other regiment served with the reconstituted division at Alamein, in Sicily, Normandy and through North West Europe to the Rhine Crossing and beyond. It served on in the Territorial Army until 1967.
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Sinclair, Donald, 1907. The History of the Aberdeen Volunteers, Aberdeen Daily Journal Office, Aberdeen