Great Orme history - WWII Coastal Artillery School
This is the site of the Coastal Artillery School, which opened in 1940.
It is a long walk!
Parking: N53 19.331 W3 50.905
Explore with care and consideration - this is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The School relocated here from Shoeburyness.
By 1942 the School was training 150 officers, 115 cadets and 445 other ranks.
Soldiers were taught to operate searchlights, wirelesses, and practised shooting at floating targets anchored off the coast.
The buildings were disguised to look like an ordinary village, including a chapel with a cross on its roof.
Aside from this site, the Summit Complex at the top of the Orme was used as a top secret radar station. The officers mess was based at Gogarth Abbey Hotel, and other places across Llandudno were used, plus a coastal artillery practice battery on the Little Orme.
Following the end of the war, the land was returned to the Mostyn family. The buildings fell into dereliction and were mostly demolished in the 1950s.
Cover image courtesy of Welsh Government
Created by smart_ginger
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