Mods - If you feel this belongs more elsewhere, perhaps Land Forces, feel free to move it.
What’s there?
Part of the mid Victorian coast defence scheme usually called Palmerston’s Follies. Counters to very early battleships, at least.
By the 1860s the range of guns had improved such that using the headlands and islands between Cardiff and Weston-Super-Mare it was possible to close the Severn Estuary above the line Lavenock Point - Flatholm - Steepholm - Brean Down. Building started in the 1860s and the defences were maintained and modified up to the early 20C. Then reused in both world wars.
(I suspect that handy 1850s geography / technology interlock might have got these batteries built even without the main part of the scheme.)
7” RML guns remain almost in place, albeit most have had part of the muzzle end cut away by the contractor who bought them for scrap value just after (IIRC) WWI. The Moncrieff disappearing mounts are all gone but the emplacements remain in pretty good nick. The guns are just to one side of their former positions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RML_7-inch_gun
These are 7 ton models, MkIIIs.
Sadly I’ve not found how FC was done, there’s obviously no view of the target to the gun crew down in the pit, perhaps somebody went up when the gun did, perhaps they had some kind of outside direction, even if only to be looking in about the right direction when they unmasked.
There’s a lighthouse and a fog horn to keep merchant shipping safe in poor visibility, how hostile ships were dealt with then I know not. Perhaps the hazards of the Channel and Estuary were thought to be enough.
There are also WWII works. A hard to get to searchlight position looks to be in decent condition but most of the rest haven’t aged as well as the Victorian building. In fairness war emergency vs peacetime building and the roofs were SWAG wriggly tin so almost certainly went with the scrap, opening the wall tops to the weather.
The command post and other positions not needing vision were built within some of the old Moncrieff pits, sensibly enough, so the contrast in condition is very clear.
All the WWII guns (4 x 4.5” HAA/CD plus local defence LAA) have gone but some of the positions are visible. There’s a safety rail protecting the lighthouse from fire from one of the 4.5” HAA/CD guns, similar but simpler to those the mothership shows on HMS Renown guarding against similar misfortunes from the same guns.
A brick radar base remains, it would have had a wide area of wire mesh flat and level with the top around it to give a false horizon.
For a very small island there’s quite a bit of other history to be seen. Neolithic through to modern with, oddly, no evidence yet found of Roman visits, the tour guide volunteer put it that “They seem to have taken their rubbish home with them.”
How to get there
RIBs and a slower boat depart from Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Docks. c£40 now, plus a fiver landing fee which goes to Cardiff council who own Flatholm.
Easy national and international access to Cardiff then to the Bay, plenty of places to eat and drink there.
Timings are tide dependent, I was lucky that was civilised at 1300 to 1700.
It’s worth studying a map to figure out where Lavenock Point and Penarth (Cardiff port close defence) are as you go out. Steepholm and Brean Down are pretty unmissable.
Very calm when I went but that was IIRC my third attempt, the two previous being cancelled due to high winds.
The landing stage is usable for about three hours at high tide so that’s as long as you get. Allow time for a pint in the Gull and Leek. It’s the most southerly pub in Wales so you can’t say no.
Said gulls can be quite aggressive in their nesting season, which coincided with my visit, the safety rail is right in the middle of one colony which is why I didn't get any closer phots.
What’s there?
Part of the mid Victorian coast defence scheme usually called Palmerston’s Follies. Counters to very early battleships, at least.
By the 1860s the range of guns had improved such that using the headlands and islands between Cardiff and Weston-Super-Mare it was possible to close the Severn Estuary above the line Lavenock Point - Flatholm - Steepholm - Brean Down. Building started in the 1860s and the defences were maintained and modified up to the early 20C. Then reused in both world wars.
(I suspect that handy 1850s geography / technology interlock might have got these batteries built even without the main part of the scheme.)
7” RML guns remain almost in place, albeit most have had part of the muzzle end cut away by the contractor who bought them for scrap value just after (IIRC) WWI. The Moncrieff disappearing mounts are all gone but the emplacements remain in pretty good nick. The guns are just to one side of their former positions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RML_7-inch_gun
These are 7 ton models, MkIIIs.
Sadly I’ve not found how FC was done, there’s obviously no view of the target to the gun crew down in the pit, perhaps somebody went up when the gun did, perhaps they had some kind of outside direction, even if only to be looking in about the right direction when they unmasked.
There’s a lighthouse and a fog horn to keep merchant shipping safe in poor visibility, how hostile ships were dealt with then I know not. Perhaps the hazards of the Channel and Estuary were thought to be enough.
There are also WWII works. A hard to get to searchlight position looks to be in decent condition but most of the rest haven’t aged as well as the Victorian building. In fairness war emergency vs peacetime building and the roofs were SWAG wriggly tin so almost certainly went with the scrap, opening the wall tops to the weather.
The command post and other positions not needing vision were built within some of the old Moncrieff pits, sensibly enough, so the contrast in condition is very clear.
All the WWII guns (4 x 4.5” HAA/CD plus local defence LAA) have gone but some of the positions are visible. There’s a safety rail protecting the lighthouse from fire from one of the 4.5” HAA/CD guns, similar but simpler to those the mothership shows on HMS Renown guarding against similar misfortunes from the same guns.
A brick radar base remains, it would have had a wide area of wire mesh flat and level with the top around it to give a false horizon.
For a very small island there’s quite a bit of other history to be seen. Neolithic through to modern with, oddly, no evidence yet found of Roman visits, the tour guide volunteer put it that “They seem to have taken their rubbish home with them.”
How to get there
RIBs and a slower boat depart from Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Docks. c£40 now, plus a fiver landing fee which goes to Cardiff council who own Flatholm.
Easy national and international access to Cardiff then to the Bay, plenty of places to eat and drink there.
Timings are tide dependent, I was lucky that was civilised at 1300 to 1700.
It’s worth studying a map to figure out where Lavenock Point and Penarth (Cardiff port close defence) are as you go out. Steepholm and Brean Down are pretty unmissable.
Very calm when I went but that was IIRC my third attempt, the two previous being cancelled due to high winds.
The landing stage is usable for about three hours at high tide so that’s as long as you get. Allow time for a pint in the Gull and Leek. It’s the most southerly pub in Wales so you can’t say no.
Said gulls can be quite aggressive in their nesting season, which coincided with my visit, the safety rail is right in the middle of one colony which is why I didn't get any closer phots.
statistics: Posted by ChrisPat — 9:57 AM - 1 day ago — Replies 0 — Views 78