Kevin Nosferatu: Training Trenches

On a day of damp and drizzle, with occasional bursts of warm sunshine that promised much but gave little, I went on a trip to Dreghorn. This is a part of Edinburgh I’ve never really ventured to before. I think I’ve passed through it on the bus a few times, but it is not a place I’ve ever stopped off in. However, I’d been told there was a rather interesting relic from the First World War in the woods here, so I thought I’d go and take a look.

Dreghorn Woods are next to the army barracks, so there is a lot of fencing and barbed wire along the paths taking you round. The woods are quite tranquil though, a haven from the busy roads nearby. Being Autumn, the paths were pretty much mud and puddles with a covering of gold and red from the fallen leaves. But, hey, that’s nothing for an intrepid explorer like me!

A photo showing a narrow and shallow river (the Braid Burn) running through an area of trees. There are lots of fallen leaves on the banks of the river. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Braid Burn running through Dreghorn Woods

A photo of fallen leaves covering the ground. They are all golden, brown and orange in colour. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Obligatory photo of fallen leaves

A photo looking up through the branches of a tree. The branches are curved and seem to swirl, like the tree is dancing. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Swirling branches

A photo of the fence and barbed wire around Dreghorn Barracks. The barrack buildings can be seen in the background. There is a sign by the fence that reads - Ministry of Defence Keep Out Guard Dogs Patrolling. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Barbed wire and fences – Dreghorn Barracks

I took the long walk round to my destination, which lay on a slope by the river and just down from the barracks. Handily signposted, otherwise you’d just think it was some mud and old earthworks, were what I’d come looking for. These holes in the ground were actually training trenches from World War One, to get the poor sods drafted into the army ready for fighting out on the front.

I followed a well-worn path that skirted around them. A path of wet, slippery mud and leaf goo. It gave some impression of what the soldiers training here would have had to go through. Though, unlike them, I wasn’t going to crawl through the trenches and the puddles of water and sludge.

A photo of a muddy looking mound with grass growing out of a hollow in it. This is one of the training trenches at Dreghorn Woods. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Training trench at Dreghorn Woods

A photo of the curving earth and mud of one of the training trenches at Dreghorn Woods. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Training trench at Dreghorn Woods

A view through the woods of a zig zag of trenches covered in fallen leaves. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

A zig zag of trenches in the wood

A view through the woods of the lines of training trenches at Dreghorn Woods. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Trenches in the woods

Dreghorn Woods used to form part of the Dreghorn Estate, which stretched up into the nearby Pentland Hills. In 1905 the estate was purchased by the War Department, now the Ministry of Defence, for training, and as a barracks. During World War One, recruits constructed a major trench system through the woods and were trained in the tactics and ways of trench warfare. Though, having read both Erich Maria Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and Ernst Jünger's ‘Storm of Steel’ I do wonder how well it would have really prepared them for the slaughter they were about to face.

A view of the remains of one of the trenches - some corrugated iron is at one side and the ground is covered in the fallen leaves of autumn. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Remains of a trench in the woods

A view of the remains of one of the trenches at Dreghorn Woods - it looks like a gouge in the earth. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

Remains of a trench in the woods

A view of a trench at Dreghorn Woods with some corrugated iron on both sides. Photograph by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.

A trench in the woods

After World War Two, the military stopped using the woods for training and the trenches became overgrown and many were eroded away. They were largely forgotten about until a local historian, Lynne Gladstone-Millar, led a campaign to preserve them. Her father, who fought in the First World War, had trained at Dreghorn Woods, and had told her about his experiences there and that the mud in the woods, the ‘Dreghorn Sludge’, had been good training for fighting at the Somme. In 2013 an archaeological survey was carried out on the remnants of the trench system, and it was cleared of trees and vegetation to help preserve it.

After taking a walk around, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me, at the side of one of the shallower trenches, by the remains of some corrugated iron that would once have been used to strengthen the sides of the trench.