Cultybraggan Camp 21

Cultybraggan Camp 21
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Comrie, Crieff,
Perthshire,
Scotland.
PH6 2AB
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Cultybraggan lies close to the village of Comrie, in west Perthshire. It was first used as a prisoner of war (PoW) camp during World War II, and then became an Army training area.
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It later housed a Royal Observer Corps (ROC) nuclear monitoring post, and a Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ).





Named PoW camp No 21, built in 1941 to house 4,000 Category A prisoners, Cultybraggan was a 'black camp', holding those considered the most committed and fanatical Nazi PoWs, mainly young Waffen-SS, Fallschirmjäger and U-boat crew. Army, Navy, Air Force and SS prisoners were held in separate compounds, as were the officers. An additional camp was located at Cowden, two miles distant.
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Ringleaders of the Devizes plot — to break as many as 250,000 PoWs out of camps across the country in 1944 and attack Britain from within — were sent to Camp 21 at Comrie. These included Feldwebel Wolfgang Rosterg, a known anti-Nazi who was sent by mistake. He was lynched, and five of the prisoners were hanged at Pentonville Prison for his murder, the largest multiple execution in 20th-century Britain.





Amongst the prisoners was Heinrich Steinmeyer, a former member of the Waffen SS, who was captured in Normandy in August 1944. He died in 2014 and left a bequest of £384,000 to the village which has been put into the Heinrich Steinmeyer Legacy Fund.
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Following the war, in 1949, Cultybraggan was opened as a training camp. It was used by the Regular Army, the Territorial Army and was popular with Cadet units for their annual camps.
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The camp covered some 8 acres (3.2 ha) and could accommodate 600 personnel in a mixture of huts and tents. Units rotating through the camp enabled 80,000 'man training days' of military exercising, including adventure training, cross-country driving, and helicopter operations, using the 12,000 acre Tighnablair Training Area, leased from the Drummond Estate.
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Some of the original 100 Nissen huts on the western side of the camp were demolished in the 1970s to make way for a firing range, but the majority remain. The surviving huts, together with an assault course and modern Officers' Mess facility, make Cultybraggan "one of the three best preserved purpose-built WWII prisoner of war camps in Britain".





In 2006, a number of structures at the camp were listed by Historic Scotland.
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Huts 19, 20, and 44–46 are category A listed as being of national significance, while huts 1-3, 21, 29-39, and 47-57 are category B listed
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View more of my pictures of Cultybraggan Camp HERE