Geograph - photograph every grid square

(Not to be confused with the nearby NS3974 : Dumbarton Rock: Duke of Argyll's Battery.)

In an older incarnation, this was the Belhouse Battery. It was renamed when it was remodelled (c.1790). The cannon itself is shown from another angle in NS3974 : Max Firepower!.

For the area in the right background, see NS3974 : Dumbarton Rock: the Wallace Tower.

The guidebooks mention an older "One-Gun Battery" just to the west of here (although there is, west of here, only a very short section of wall ending at a steep rock face). The guidebooks state that its tall tower with conical roof (shown in old illustrations of the Rock) is now represented only by a curving wall at the angle of the battery. I believe this refers to the curved section of wall that is visible directly behind the cannon in this picture.

That is borne out by the "Plan of the Castle of Dunbarton" — Link (Archive Link ) (at NLS) — by Paul Sandby, which shows that curving section of wall with parts that are no longer present; on that plan, it was a near circle, the only gap being the entrance (to the tower). Other interesting details are shown on that plan. For example, just a few metres to the south-east of that tower was a small structure (now gone) that projects slightly from the outer wall; it is depicted in the same manner as the latrine at NS3974 : Dumbarton Castle: the Spur Battery (which is also shown on that plan).

A valuable feature of that plan is that it also includes, at the bottom, some illustrations showing the Castle from a distance. In the illustration at the bottom right, a tower with conical roof is indeed shown at the location of the curving wall shown in my picture; just to its left is a structure that has the same shape as the surviving latrine (thus confirming its function). A little further to the left is the tall Wallace Tower, of which only the base now remains: NS3974 : Dumbarton Rock: the Wallace Tower.