Weekend open days raise money for Wick pillbox museum

Wick’s World War II pillbox museum attracted a steady stream of visitors over the course of two open days at the weekend.

Money raised through a raffle and a donation box will go towards the cost of materials to ensure the attraction can continue for another year.

Denny Swanson, volunteer manager of the brick fortress on the north side of Wick Bay, hosted open days on Saturday and Sunday and welcomed visitors of all ages.

Denny (84), a former military policeman, recently repainted the exterior of the pillbox in a black-and-white design in the style of dazzle camouflage.

The pillbox door now features a soldier silhouette based on the set of plywood figures Denny created a couple of years ago for the town’s annual remembrance commemorations.

He has also improved access to the site, halfway up the brae above the North Baths, by installing a metal handrail made from old scaffolding poles.

All the materials for the paintwork and the handrail were donated by local businesses and organisations.

Local football club Wick Thistle donated the paint. Denny was a goalkeeper for Thistle in the 1960s.

Thistle run a weekly lotto draw to raise funds for the running of the club but over the past 28 years have also donated thousands towards good causes and sponsorship of local events.

Chairman Andrew Henderson, who visited the pillbox with his nine-year-old daughter Lexy, said: "When we were approached by Denny to help, the club and committee were only too happy to help in any way we could.

"Projects like these are important to the town and there are many volunteer groups that do excellent work. Thistle are a community-minded club and if we can help in any way, we try and do our best."

Speaking on Sunday, after showing a replica Bren gun to six-year-old Owen Munro and grandad Brian, Denny explained: "The money that we make over these two days will keep me going for next year, to keep it looking good for the future. It's a community thing.

"Two lads from Portsmouth came and one of them said, 'It doesn't really matter because we've got plenty of pillboxes in Portsmouth that we can go and have a look at.' I said, 'Ah, but you haven't seen one like this,' and they got a really big surprise because they'd never seen one like this before."

Pillboxes were constructed as part of British anti-invasion plans and there are a number of them around the Caithness coastline.

The pillbox museum was established in 2019 after Denny and other volunteers cleared out the structure, dug out the steps and returfed the roof. The project also involved placing a bench, a flagpole and a memorial stone nearby.

Items on display inside include three replica Bren guns, British and German helmets, a sextant, an oscilloscope, a World War II telephone set and lengths of cordite, as well as a compass from a Spitfire that crashed at Wick aerodrome.

There are shell casings from the Isleford, which sank in Wick Bay in 1942, along with artefacts from other ships that came to grief in the local area, including a piece of brass from a three-masted schooner which ran aground at Broadhaven.

During the war the structure was manned by five soldiers 24 hours a day to guard against any German invasion force coming from occupied Norway.

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