The anti-invasion defences of the Forth and Tay estuaries, eastern Scotland

1900 to 1919

Abstract

The anti-invasion defences of the Second World War are still a prominent part of the modern landscape (Barclay 2013). The defences built during the First World War are, however, less well known. Some of these, indeed, have been misidentified as having been built in the later war, and many places were defended in both conflicts. Even less well known are the defences planned, and in some cases built, between 1900 and 1914, as set out in the Army’s ‘Defence Schemes’ for Scotland, and in the records of individual coast defence batteries. This paper sets out the plans to defend two adjacent parts of Scotland between 1900 and 1919, the coasts of the Tay and Forth estuaries, in the wider context of the defence of the UK.