Gordon J. Barclay & Ron Morris. 2019. The fortification of the Firth of Forth 1880–1977: ‘The most powerful naval fortress in the British Empire’. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

Abstract

• Naval defences, unlike those typically constructed by land forces, are often impermanent or invisible: floating blockades deployed across the surface of the water or mines laid deep beneath it. This reality can pose real challenges for the interpretation of such historic sites, despite their significance or wider appeal. Remnants of the River Forth's defensive past can still be seen, however, and the landscape explored, if you know where to look. In The fortification of the Firth of Forth 1880–1977: ‘The most powerful naval fortress in the British Empire’, the latest monograph to be published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, authors Gordon Barclay and Ron Morris tell the relatively unknown story of the development of this defended estuary. Drawing on their ongoing research into Scotland's late nineteenth- and twentieth-century defensive installations, Barclay and Morris have produced a comprehensive study of the complex network of temporary and permanent structures that protected the Firth of Forth for almost a century.