All pillboxes are concrete, but some are more concrete than others
I am going to make a bold statement that may cause some heated discussion. All pillboxes were made of concrete. Concrete is an incredible building material, first used by the…
Site Visit Part I – Randalstown Forest, First World War Rifle Range
One of many Forest Service forests across Northern Ireland, Randalstown Forest was gifted by the Shanes Castle Estate in 1934. It is open to the public and can be openly…
Site Visit Part II – Randalstown Forest, Second World War Defences
The pillbox is synonymous with the Second World War. Thousands were constructed across the United Kingdom (and Ireland) to defend high-value areas or as part of a National defensive line.…
Interpreting Burray Ness
A rare military site dating back to the height of the First World War remains virtually untouched on an exposed headland at Burray Ness, on the Isle of Burray, south…
How much property did the army requisition?
This article aims to bring together a number of sources of information I have in order to demonstrate the extent of requisitions undertaken by the army, typically for short duration, in support of surges in violence but also for the accommodation of the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment in the 1970s.
Wartime transmission experiments and two unknown sites in County Down
The 1930s and 1940s saw huge advances in the development of radio and radar technologies, with one of the most sophisticated networks of Radio Direction Finding (RDF) being deployed in…
Blimp over the Border
In the mid-1990s trials were being undertaken at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England for a new type of airborne surveillance platform. In the days before Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) were…
Fortifications of Operation Banner
Between 1969 and 2007, both the British Army and civilian population were under attack. It was a dynamic conflict, both in terms of geography and threat, during which there would…
Was there a secret intercept station at Divis?
There are many elements of operations in Northern Ireland that will remain secret, and rightly so. But as time moves on historians, academics and enthusiastic amateurs will slowly uncover details…
A study of the pillbox at Murlough Beach
For those of you who are familiar with the beach at Murlough Bay nature reserve, you may have noticed a rather unassuming pile of rubble. Without interpretation you may have…