The Highland Exclusion Zone in WWII - Links

Some other good sources:
Neil mentioned Gordon Barclay's If Hitler Comes. Preparing for Invasion: Scotland 1940. This is based mainly on military docs.

Annette asked about studies for this area. There is no one source which pulls together wartime activity. And there are few investigations which combine memories, documentary evidence, remains on the ground, and memorabilia. A number of groups have specifically targetted wartime memories (eg Alness at War by Alness Heritage Centre), and other oral history projects usually include a section on wartime memories (Neil mentioned the Kilmorack Heritage series). ARCH has run several projects which focus on both memories, documentary sources, and surviving remains: for Invergordon WWI this culminated in a trail leaflet, and for for both WWI and WWII in a booklet Wartime Invergordon: a town transformed (materials and archive material at Invergordon Museum, which has good wartime display and resources). An excellent example of a primary school project is the Park School Invergordon 1990s project which collected photos and memories. ARCH also looked at Evanton airfields, with publication Evanton Wartime Remains (archives held at the Cornerstone Cafe, Evanton). A project focussing on Dalmore Distillery, taken over in WWI and WWII, was investigated by ARCH, Invergordon Museum and Alness Heritage. The WWI aspects are in the recently published book The NOrthern Barrage. The Fence across the North Sea in WWI, with WWII still to be published (though information in Invergordon Museum). Closer to Neil's area of study The Kiltarlity Community Council/ ARCH project on Boblainy Forest collected memories, and looked at the wartime forestry in the area (where Beauly was the main place for transporting timber), with results published in a booklet. ARCH has also investigated Strathpeffer which was a US Naval hospital in WWI (covered in Northern Barrage Book) and administrative HQ in WWII (info in Remembering the Strathpeffer Area: 5. Wartime Remains, available from ARCH website). Loch Ewe remains were covered by Steve Chadwick's book on Loch Ewe during World War II, but there's far more information to be recovered, and Allan Kilpatrick of HES is hoping to do further work over that way. Kyle of Sutherland was also a major forestry area in both WWI and WWII, with information covered in Kyle of Sutherland Heritage Society publications and Ledmore and Migdale Memories (latter on ARCH website); NoSAS and ARCH surveyed one of the Canadian Forestry Corps sawmill sites (Anne Coombs to publish soon!). Allan Kilpatrick has combined archival research with detailed groundtruthing at the North and South Sutors - he'll be talking about this in the ARCH lecture this month, which will be recorded.

There are extensive archives, especially in the National Archives in Kew, and also Imperial War Museum. Gordon Barclay used a number for his book. J Guy used them to compile lists of various WWII fortifications, and this information has been extracted into relevant HER entries (though there are problems converting military grid refs to British National Grid). But there is undoubtedly more information to excavate in the National Archives. I have photos of lots of documents, particularly for the areas ARCH has been involved in.

For airfields (of which there were a number in the restricted zone), work by Jim Hughes, either in individual booklets or his book Steep Turn to the Stars, combines RAF documentation and photographs from 1980s and 1990s; many sites now gone.

And of course there are lots of websites on almost any aspect you want to look at including pillboxes, regiments, war memorials, auxiliary bunkers etc. It's interesting that the Lovat Bridge has two different types of pillboxes, including the round Norcon one - a deathtrap! But it suggests there is more to tease out for this story too. Neil showed the real potential of newspapers too!

So in short, a lot of information for our area has been collected and some published, but there's still scope to investigate other communities, and then pull things together. Caithness has rich wartime remains, and some sites on the west, notably Kyle of Sutherland and Loch Ewe, have great potential. The role of the Caledonian Canal and railways are also important.