North Queensferry, Carlingnose Studios

Carlingnose Studios in North Queensferry is a former twin gun battery built between 1901 and 1902, which played a significant military role before and during both World Wars. The site is strategically located on high ground near the Forth (Rail) Bridge, offering long-range views across the Firth of Forth towards Edinburgh. The structure features reinforced concrete gun emplacements with locker recesses and circular holdfasts, as well as semi-circular aprons and access stairs.

To the immediate west of the emplacements is a large lightwell courtyard, also known as a collecting pit, which contains a cast-iron shell hoist in the northeast corner. There is another lightwell courtyard to the north, both of which provide access to subterranean, brick-lined magazines, shell, and cartridge stores.

Inside, the interiors showcase exposed red brick and barrel-vaulted magazines that run from north to south, featuring ventilation recesses. There are remnants of painted signage above doorways, including 'Shifting Lobby', 'Shell Store', and 'Cartridge Store'. The corridor between the north and south magazines has been blocked to create separate studio spaces in 2006, while the corridor to the north contains a metal and timber shell winch. The south magazine has been adapted with glazed timber infills to create an entrance vestibule and studio/office space, which includes an integrated kitchen area.

On the north wall of the principal lightwell, there is a painted mural from around 1940 that depicts a panoramic view of the Firth as seen from the battery. The west wall features a large subterranean store room with segmental-arched openings and a rib-vaulted ceiling, along with a passageway in the northwest corner that links to a partially subterranean former services and latrine block, which has a narrow lightwell and access stair to the west.

The site is enclosed by a reinforced concrete protective wall that extends to the north, which has been breached to allow residential access. There is a square-plan, flat-roofed observation post on the north side of the breach that originally housed Depression Range Finder equipment, along with two additional flat-roofed outbuildings located to the west of each gun emplacement. The building features predominantly timber-framed sash and case windows, cast-iron railings, and later metal access stairs leading to the lightwells.