civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
on the A198. It contains . Dirleton lies between
North Berwick
North Berwick (; gd, Bearaig a Tuath) is a seaside town and former royal burgh in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately east-northeast of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable ...
(east),
Gullane
Gullane ( or ) is a town on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in East Lothian on the east coast of Scotland. There has been a church in the village since the ninth century. The ruins of the Old Church of St. Andrew built in the twel ...
(west), Fenton Barns (south) and the Yellowcraigs nature reserve, Archerfield Estate and the Firth of Forth (north). Gullane parish was joined to Dirleton parish in 1612 by an Act of Parliament because "Golyn (as it was anciently spelt) is ane decaying toun, and Dirleton is ane thriven place."
Locale
Dirleton has two hotels, The Castle Inn which looks on to the village green and The Open Arms Hotel. Other visitor attractions today include the Dirleton Gallery, now closed for business, Archerfield Links recently built with two 18-hole golf courses and hotel.
The church (presumably built soon after the move of the parish in 1612) and manse (1708) of Dirleton stand immediately to the north of the village in a beautiful situation. The church has extensive Victorian renovations (1836 including the ornate tower), and a churchyard. it has a population of about 3300. The churchyard contains an odd stone of 1746 to a George Seton, including two stern-faced
mermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Mermaids are sometimes ass ...
John Alexander Carfrae
John Alexander Carfrae (1868–1947) was a Scottish architect of particular note in the field of innovative school design. He was considered one of the best architects of his generation, but his works were rather limited as he was constrained t ...
(1910) who built many Edinburgh schools. Trinitarian friars had a friary here prior to the reformation.
''Two'' ''Weeks'' ''in'' ''September''
The 1967 British-French film Two Weeks in September (''À cœur joie'') was partly filmed in the area. The film starred
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...
and
Laurent Terzieff
Laurent Terzieff (27 June 1935, in Toulouse – 2 July 2010, in Paris) was a French actor.
Biography
Terzieff was the son of French ceramistSerge Bourguignon
Serge Bourguignon (, born 3 September 1928) is a French film director and screenwriter. His film ''Sundays and Cybele'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes ...
. Scenes for the film were shot on location in Dirleton Castle and on the beach at Gullane in September 1966. The principal cast stayed at the Open Arms Hotel in Dirleto
Castle
Dirleton is notable for
Dirleton Castle
Dirleton Castle is a medieval fortress in the village of Dirleton, East Lothian, Scotland. It lies around west of North Berwick, and around east of Edinburgh. The oldest parts of the castle date to the 13th century, and it was abandoned by th ...
, a well-preserved medieval fortress, which today belongs to
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage, and promoting its understanding and enjoyment ...
. It is the ''
caput
Latin words and phrases
{{Short pages monitor
The radar station at lies just to the north of Dirleton and is one of a handful of Second World War GCI (
Ground-controlled interception Ground-controlled interception (GCI) is an air defence tactic whereby one or more radar stations or other observational stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic was ...
)
Radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
complexes that have survived demolition. In the early 1940s it was a site for mobile control and aerial trailers, but because of the continued incursion of night raiders more sophisticated equipment was required to direct friendly fighter aircraft to the enemy and the earlier Chain Home radar network needed to be augmented. The latter was designed to detect incoming waves of German aircraft during daylight and direct British fighters to a point where they could make visual contact (i.e. within a mile or so). In darkness, however, central command had to direct night fighters to within hundreds of metres in order to engage the enemy and the station at Dirleton was constructed as part of a system designed to provide this level of accuracy and control.
The main operations block, often called a Happidrome, was the hub of the complex and it was from here that underground cables ran to the various transmitters and receivers in the surrounding areas. These included height finding equipment, plan and position indicators and machinery for the identification of friend and foe signals sent by incoming aircraft. The information obtained was collated in the operations room and relayed to the fighter stations at
Drem
Drem (Scottish Gaelic: ''Druim'') is a small village in East Lothian, Scotland.
It is approximately 20 miles east of Edinburgh and is close to Haddington (to the south), North Berwick (northeast), Dirleton (north) and Gullane (north west).
It ...
and the training unit at Charterhall.
Although staff were not billeted at the station it was largely self-sufficient with its own water supply, sewage treatment plant, generator house and telephone exchange. Welfare facilities included canteens, showers and rest rooms. It is clear that in times of emergency the site could have carried on independently of the national grid and, with the blast doors closed and air filtration unit functioning, it could have survived all but the most direct of hits from enemy planes.
In its later life it passed over many of its main functions to other centres but it continued as a training venue until the 1950s. Prior to development of the site a full survey was undertaken by Headland Archaeology and archived at the
National Monuments Record of Scotland
The National Monuments Record of Scotland (NMRS) was the term used for the archive of the sites, monuments and buildings of Scotland's past maintained by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The Commission was ...
