Blackness

 
Blackness Castle has been the property of the Scottish and then the British Crown since 1453.

In 1870 the castle became the main ammunition depot for Scotland, after the risks of storing so much powder at Leith Fort, in the middle of a densely inhabited area, had been forcibly pointed out by the Town Council.

The depot remained in use until 1912.

It was reoccupied during the First World War, but we do not know exactly for what purpose, unless the expanded need for ammunition storage resulted in the reopening of the store. Whatever it was used for, it was defended.

The peninsula on which the castle was built was cut off by a barbed wire entanglement, behind which complex firing trenches were dug. The east- and west-facing walls of the castle were marked as ‘loopholed’, although it is not clear if new loopholes were cut, or existing ones reused. Allan Kilpatrick (pers comm) reports one loophole on the southern side of the current ticket office and shop at the castle.

The defences of Blackness Castle in the First World War