Mugdock Anti-Aircraft Gun Placement

The Mugdock Anti-Aircraft Gun Placement was meant to be used in World War II to protect the Clyde area.

It was built in 1942, a year after the Clydebank Blitz. It was one of many batteries that was built around the Clyde Basin to protect the factories and towns around Glasgow. However, it never became operational.

The site can be seen from quite a distance, with big lumps of concrete rising from the ground.

The battery was designed to take four guns, but what is amazing is that it was never armed, completed or even occupied. The GL (gun laying) Radar installation was also started, but not completed.

The battery would have been manned by around 70 men and women, with the men operating the guns and the women operating the predictor, height finder and radar. It would have been quite the hive of activity and crucial for the defences of Glasgow and the surrounding area, however it had ever been used.

The nearby Mugdock Wood camp contains the concrete bases ready to support 39 Nissen huts which would have accommodate the personnel, and would have included kitchen and shower facilities, but again they were never completed. There is also the remains of a storage tank that would have held water that was pumped from nearby Mugdock Loch.

The above picture shows the gun placement site. You can see the command post to the right, and the four gun placements in a standard arc pattern to the east of the command post.

The four gun pits are dodecahedron, meaning they are three dimensional and have twelve equal pentagonal faces, are made of concrete and brick. Each gun pit measures 13.5m in diameter, with a 0.5m thick walls that are 1.85m high.

Each gun pit contains ammunition vaults and crew shelters and has a single entrance that faces the command post. Let's not forget the large concrete circle in the middle where the huge gun would be attached.

There are five ammunition vaults in each gun pit, each has a flat concrete roofs with raised concrete floors. They would also double as bomb shelters due to there depth.

The crew shelters were built with a circular hole in the roof for the chimney pipe for a stove, which would have stood upon a small rectangular concrete plinth. An air brick below high in the shelter wall would be used for ventilation.

Time to check out the command post, even a vertically challenged individual such as myself, had to duck!

The command post from outside looks quite small, but once you enter, there is a maze of rooms which would have held the intelligence of the site. It is here that the incoming dangers would have been assessed and decisions made on how to intercept the enemy.

The command post is also constructed of brick and concrete. There is an external concrete terrace for the height finder, telescope, predictor and the cable terminus shelter.

The telephone exchange equipment was accessed externally via a flight of steps leading down to two small square compartments.

Each wing contains two linked rooms, with doorways between them, with small vents and a rectangular window. There is also an internal window looking into the plotting room.

Once you exit the command post, if you take a look up over the other side of the path, there is a further concrete structure, this the radar block.

The 6.2m square structure has 0.4m thick brick walls which are 1.5m high and it's topped with a reinforced flat concrete roof. Unfortunately, I was unable to access the building for a nose around inside.

There is also a small telecommunications hut around 200m to the north east, on the outside of the enclosure.

Although the site did not see action, it is an important part of history and shows how similar sites would have looked.

The Khyber Car Park is only a short distance to the north west of the gun placement, but if you fancy making a day of it, why not try the Mugdock Circular Walk that also takes in Craigend Castle and Mugdock Castle.