The Big Gun

This is the beautiful view at Marine Villa, Archerfield, East Lothian, from the World War Two gun turret there.

It has a commanding view of the Firth of Forth, with the island of Fidra about a quarter of a mile off-shore.

The story is that the thick-walled brick bunker was built and equipped with a very large gun at the start of the war. It had a crew and full chain of command but was never required. It was decided that they should occasionally test-fire the gun to make sure it still worked.

So one fateful day everything was prepared to the book, the range was set to land in the middle of the Firth somewhere and the gun was fired.

The shell finally came down in a field in Fife, some fifteen miles away across the sea...

...and that was the only time the gun was fired.

So the story goes.