Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

COMRIE, CULTYBRAGGAN FORMER CADET CAMP, HUTS 1-3, 21, 29-39, 47-57 (ALL NOS INCLUSIVE)LB50472

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
B
Group Category Details
100000019 - See Notes
Date Added
30/05/2006
Local Authority
Perth And Kinross
Planning Authority
Perth And Kinross
Parish
Comrie
NGR
NN 76880 19915
Coordinates
276880, 719915

Description

Circa 1941. Group of buildings forming part of a large purpose-built World War II Prisoner of War camp. 15 semi-circular corrugated metal Nissen huts lining approach to SE and group of 11 similar huts to NE. Huts of varying lengths, 16-foot span, brick base courses and rendered ends, corrugated iron roofs, most with door flanked by timber windows to each end, timber and corrugated iron catslide dormers to the lengths; to NE group, 2 pairs of smaller huts linked together. Mostly timber casement windows with varying glazing patterns.

INTERIOR: Nissen huts mostly very plain. Some smaller huts in NE group have sanitary fittings, likely to be post-war.

Statement of Special Interest

A-Group with Comrie, Cultybraggan Former Cadet Camp, Hut Nos 19, 20, 44,45,46.

The statutory address hut numbers are based on the numbering system operated by the TA.

Cultybraggan Camp is one of the three best preserved purpose-built WWII prisoner of war camps in Britain. The listed structures at Cultybraggan provide important physical evidence of the ways in which POW were detained during this period, supplemented by varying levels of documentary evidence. The listed group includes part of the original guards' compound to the south, and half of one of the prisoner 'cages' to the north, including accommodation and ablutions blocks. To the right of the front gate is the hut which was used as the camp church (hut 21). Cultybraggan holds additional interest because it held a high proportion of so-called 'black' or Nazi prisoners, and also because it gained notoriety following the Rostberg murder (see below).

This grouping of huts span from the North to the South of the site and serve as a reminder of the scale of the camp and the different type of layout used.

Cultybraggan Camp was under construction in September 1941, and was originally intended as a labour camp for Italian POW, but does not appear to have been occupied at that time. By May 1944 (the date of the camp's first Red Cross inspection), Cultybraggan was a transit camp for German POW, holding 785 with a capacity of 4500. By 25 December 1944, the camp was holding 3988 POW and had been redesignated as a base camp. Most likely because of its remote location, Cultybraggan became known as 'Nazi 2', one of the two maximum security camps in Britain which held a high proportion of prisoners classified as 'black', i.e. the most ardent Nazis and potential troublemakers. On 22 December 1944 an infamous kangaroo court was held and Sergeant Wolfgang Rostberg was murdered as an informer by fellow POWs (5 of whom were later convicted in a high-profile trial and hanged at Pentonville).

Cultybraggan was disbanded as a POW camp circa May 1947. The site was subsequently used as a training centre and location for TA summer camps. Its use as a military training camp continued until 2004.

The camp was laid out following a fairly standard, near-symmetrical pattern, with the guard's compound located to the S nearest the access from the public road, with a recreation ground to the NE side. The prisoner's compounds (falling into 4 near-identical groupings) were located to the N, on the other side of a spine road running E-W across the site. The compounds are divided by a network of roads, and the huts are surrounded by grassed plots. To the centre of the camp is the brick-built (with shuttered concrete roof) secure accommodation block, which retains original cell doors, although the partition walls have been lost.

In the 1970s, the two prisoner compounds to the W side of the site were demolished, and the assault course and firing range were subsequently constructed on part of that area. The groundworks of the demolished huts are still partly discernible.

Approximately 100 yards to the N of the site is its sewage treatment plant, which is accessed by a 2-track timber roadway, possibly dating to the POW period of the camp. Later buildings on the site or connected to it include a few post war structures to the SW corner of the site, a small 1950s/60s gas facility, rifle range and assault course built in the 1970s, a Royal Observation Corps bunker and alarge Regional Government Headquarters nuclear bunker, built in the early 1990s. To the N of the site is an explosives magazine, which appears to post date the POW era of the camp.

References

Bibliography

Hellen, J A, 'Temporary settlements and transient populations. The legacy of Britain's prisoner of war camps.' Erdkunde. Archive fur wissenschaftliche Geographie (Bonn), 1999, Vol. 53, No 4, pp.191-219. Hellen, J A, 'Revisiting the past: German Prisoners of War and their legacy in Britain.' Rozvoj Ceske Spolencnosti V Evropske Unii III (Praha), 2004, p220. Hellen, JA, 'Reparation, re-education, reconciliation, Britain's German POW camps revisited, Transcript of Public lecture, 21 April 2005.' Hellen JA, unpublished notes taken from ICRC records in Geneva. Thomas, R JC, Project Report. Twentieth Century Military Recording Project, Prisoner of War Camps (1939-1948), (2003), National Monuments Records Centre, English Heritage, pp18-43. Scotland on Sunday, Spectrum magazine, 18 December 1994, pp8-9. The Express, 15 December 1999, pp34-35. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments in Scotland records.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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