Shown in red in the photograph below, this was a small battery sited on the cliff edge adjacent to the North Face. Above it at the top of the photograph is the entrance to the Upper Galleries (Great Siege Tunnels). In front of it at the bottom of the photograph are the guns of Princess Anne’s Battery.

It was below this battery that the Spanish miners began to dig a mine in 1727 but, finding the going in the hard rock very arduous, they were unable to complete before the lifting of the siege and the return of peace.

The battery served during the Great Siege of 1779-1883. It adjoined the later entrance to the Upper Galleries leading to St. George’s Hall within the Notch shown below. The battery was named after Maj. General Sir A. F. Farringdon CRA in 1790.

In 1859 it mounted seven guns. Then in 1878 the battery was remodelled to take two heavy 9-inch 12-ton RML guns but, in 1898, these were changed to 10- inch and stayed there until 1906. It is likely that the 10-inch RML gun now in place at Parsons Lodge (which was found lying in Princess Lines) came from this battery since Farringdon’s was the only battery in this part of the Rock where such guns were mounted.

The remains of the battery consists of heavy concrete construction, but the details of when and how this was carried out are not available. Certainly some modifications were carried out during the Second WorId War when a fixed beam searchlight was installed in the right hand casemate to illuminate a fixed area on the rock face. The battery is still in good condition and commands a superb view of the whole of the north face of the Rock, the airport and Spain beyond.