This site was perhaps one of the best and most informative sites I visited during my August trip to the North of England and Scotland. The site as it exist today is mainly a holiday park, but having said that it is very much a mixed development and consists of multiple areas each of which show the way the usage of the site and how it has changed over the years and the history of people that over time have lived and worked there.

First thing to say the weather on my arrival to the site was bad consisting of heavy rain and medium but gusting winds. Whilst I was trying to contact the owner of one of the more interesting parts of the park I talked to an elderly maintenance person working on what is now the major part of the site consisting as it does of PreFab holiday homes. This gentleman told me that the woodland surrounding the site at one time also contained military traces from WWII in that there exists both a pillbox, hut bases and above all a revetment(s) where anti-aircraft guns were sited. After waiting some time I meet a second elderly gentleman that lives in a bungalow on what was a farm and is from my own point of view is the best part of the site with retained WWII buildings and structures. The gentleman told me that the site was used to hold Officers and enlisted German PoWs. That during the war the PoW not only worked as expected on local farms but also at St Andrews University working on the grounds. He also told me that following the end of the war like many such sites the Nissen Huts and other removable PreFab buildings were as with most sites sold off.

The majority of the site became a holiday and residential caravan site and that over the years it went more up-market with older vans and prefabs being replaced with the more modern prefab holiday homes in what is now Annsmuir Park and Holiday Homes along with a Mobile Caravan Camping and Storage site at the rear. This gentleman said that when he moved to his part of the site it was a pig farm and that he took over the existing farm and ran it for many years before retiring. Following his retirement, he decided to simply close the farm as such and stay on in the large bungalow that he still lives in. In this he also pointed out and showed me the way in which the surviving PreFab were adapted to house pigs by the cutting of Pig Flaps / Holes in the bases of the huts – these can be seen in many of the huts in my photos.

Many former PoWs retained links with the area and made regular return trips to the former camp bringing with them family and friends. These revisits eventually lead to a large party being held on the sites an event commemorated with a memorial stone at the entrance to the park with an inscription in both German and English. A Photograph of this stone commemorating reunions held from 1989 to 82 is included within my images.

The main remaining section of the Camp in which the gentleman’s bungalow is to be found contains a couple of well-maintained huts one of which is used as a garage. The other huts that were used by the pig farm have seen better days. There are also a number of hut bases to the rear in what is now an extensive allotment or food growing garden.