WORLD WAR II ANTI-TANK BARRIER, LONGNIDDRY, SCOTLAND

East Lothian is gifted with lots of lovely, sandy beaches along its coastline, beloved by tourists and locals alike. While they may look at such sandy expanses with eyes of anticipation and admiration, others in 1940 worried that the beaches offered the enemy a means to invade.

The army was swift to employ the means to forestall a sea-borne invasion. Any and all such potential landing places were obstructed with large concrete blocks and/or wooden poles set in cement to prevent glider landings or to obstruct landing craft on the beaches. These covered all the beaches from Fisherrow Sands in the west to Belhaven Bay in the east, and taking in Seton Sands, Gosford Bay, Aberlady Bay, Gullane Bay, Broad Sands, Peffer Sands, Ravensheugh Sands and Tyne Sands. These defences were intended to make any landing more difficult and, should the enemy get ashore, to slow down tanks and vehicles attempting to move inland.

Considerable numbers of these war-time defences are still in situ
During World War II, these anti-tank blocks were used for the defense of the United Kingdom against a possible enemy invasion. They were built in 1940 and into 1941.