WWII anti-tank blocks at the Devil's Elbow, Gleann Beag, Perthshire, Scotland
Two converging lines of Second World War concrete anti-tank blocks cross the open moorland beside the disused Devil's Elbow section of the former A93 in Gleann Beag, north of Spittal of Glenshee. The blocks were positioned in a chevron arrangement, running towards the Allt a' Choire Sheiridh, and formed part of the Cowie Stop Line, a wartime defensive line extending westwards from Stonehaven. Historic Environment Scotland records the defences here from a 1946 RAF aerial photograph, which also shows a pillbox overlooking the road.
The image shows particularly clearly how the blocks were arranged in relation to the road: the surviving concrete obstacles descend the hillside while the old road executes one of the tight hairpin bends for which the Devil's Elbow was notorious. The original road was subsequently bypassed when the A93 was improved, leaving the hairpin and wartime defences as conspicuous features in the upland landscape.
(AI Generated)