Penlee Battery

Penlee Battery is a nature reserve lying on the coastal headland of Penlee Point on the Rame Peninsula, in southeast Cornwall, England.

Penlee Battery
Rame Head
Cornwall
England
Penlee Battery is located in Cornwall
Penlee Battery
Penlee Battery
Coordinates50°19′13″N 4°11′35″W
Site information
Open to
the public		Yes
Site history
Built1889-92
In use1892-1956
MaterialsConcrete
Earth
DemolishedMostly filled in
Penlee Battery today as a Nature Reserve.

The site was formerly the location of a gun battery, constructed between 1889 and 1892. It was originally armed with two 6-inch BL guns and a 13.5-inch BL, the latter of which was the largest gun of the Plymouth defences. During World War I and II, the battery's armament was made up of three 9.2-inch guns.[1]

After the dissolution of coast artillery in the United Kingdom in 1956 the battery was disarmed and disposed of by the War Office. Many parts of the battery were demolished and gun positions filled in during the 1970s. One of the 6-inch emplacements remains intact, while the battery's magazines remain underground, but are filled in.[1]

It is home to a beach revealed at low tide,[2] and is famous among dragonfly enthusiasts as the site where Britain's first Green Darner dragonfly was found, in 1998.[3][4]

References
  1. "Penlee Point Battery" (PDF). www.victorianforts.co.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  2. Chapman, Peter (11 July 2020). "Golden beach hidden by the tide and its 67 ton military mystery". plymouthherald. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  3. Pellow, Keith (1999a) An influx of Green Darner Anax junius (Drury) into Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly - The First European Records Atropos No. 6 pp. 3-7
  4. Pellow, Keith (1999b) Common Green Darner Anax junius (Drury) in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly - The first British and European Records Journal of the British Dragonfly Society Vol. 15 No. 1 pp. 21-22

Bibliography
  • Hogg, Ian V (1974). Coast Defences of England and Wales 1856-1956. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153 6353-0.
  • Woodward, Freddy (1996). The Historic Defences of Plymouth. Cornwall County Council. ISBN 978-1898166467.


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