World War One trenches are found … in the Highlands

Published on Tuesday 11 November 2008 22:34

EXPERTS have found trenches dug by troops stationed in the Highlands that have survived 90 years after the First World War's end, it was revealed yesterday.

Aerial photographs revealed the network near Invergordon, prompting a closer inspection by the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS).

Surveyors found two sets of trenches, from 2ft to 5ft deep – one representing British lines and the other German – with 400 yards of "no man's land" between them.

They are believed to have been built for training by Royal Marines stationed in Invergordon. Some stretches have become overgrown with bracken.

An even more spectacular set of trenches near Cromarty was ploughed over in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Allan Kilpatrick, of RCAHMS, said: "You do get a sense of what a soldier would have experienced the first time he went into the trenches.

"Also, the distance between them is around 400 yards – about the same as between some of the trenches on the Western Front.

"When you walk it you think it is a long way to go if there were bullets coming flying at you.

"The preservation of them is absolutely superb and they have a huge rarity value in Scotland. There are others at Barry Links near Dundee and in the Pentlands near Edinburgh – but these are brilliantly preserved."

He added: "We found them about a year ago during a desktop survey of the land, but we didn't know what they were and that prompted us to go out and have a look. Practice trenches were excavated wherever there were soldiers, and usually this was on military land."

Nick Hewitt, a historian at the Imperial War Museum in London, said the public was often unaware of the existence of such trenches.

"I have seen some aerial photographs of the trenches and, while they are something you would expect to find on the Western Front, to see them in the UK is quite spooky," he said.

"Given the scale of the armed forces at the time of the First World War, a lot of trenches were being dug around the country for training."

Mr Hewitt said the training trenches were far from "glorified ditches". He said: "They were deep and had fire steps, bunkers, and communication trenches.

"They were complicated and before going to France the best thing the soldiers could do was practise digging them."

Invergordon was important to the navy before, during and after the war, providing access to fuel and dockyard repairs.