Gibraltar Signal Hill Battery

Rock Of Gibraltar aerial view

Nothing remains of battery which has been covered by the top cable car station, superimposed in red below. The battery was one of the Upper Ridge batteries. The ruins adjacent to the cable car station are part of a set of support buildings which included a guard house and stores. All are in a poor condition which is typical of old MOD properties which are left to decay before they are handed over to Gibraltar government control.

Signal Hill battery was built on the site of the old Signal Station of 1727, it is also referred to as Signal Battery. It stood on the ridge, 1,200 feet above sea level and near the top of the Old Moorish Wall. In 1773 it was armed and later mounted a 6-pdr. In January 1892 it mounted one 6-inch BL QF gun on a Vavasseur centre pivot mounting, and in 1899 emplacements were prepared for two 6-inch guns. The approved armament in 1901 recommended four 6-inch guns, two with a range of 10,000 yards to bear on land batteries and, of course, the Bay, and two onto the Mediterranean. Also in 1901 two 12-pdr.QF 12cwt guns on QF MK. I 32° depression mountings were put into two emplacements south of the 6-inch guns and remained there until 1906. This was a position for two 3-inch 30-cwt. anti-aircraft guns during the Second World War mounted on the pits of the old 6-inch guns. A 40-mm Bofors was also installed in the area.

The following photographs show the ruins of the support buildings adjacent to the cable car.

The photograph below shows the remains of Gibraltar’s first Cable Car (although it took the form of a basket into which a man, ammunition or supplies might be transported to the gun emplacements. The modern cable car building can be seen in the bottom centre of the photograph.

A small tunnel cuts through the Rock from east to west directly under Signal Hill. The following photographs show some of the features in the order they appear after entering.

The interior is in extremely poor condition with all metal objects disintegrating with rust.

Some paint colour still remains.

The chamber shown below contains the remains of the collapsed Nissen hut which stood within the cavity. The size of this chamber is approximately 6×12 metres.

At the east end there are cooking facilities including a stove, all in poor condition.

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