Mystery object

[Tim+]

I've long wondered what this lump of concrete is doing lying near a seaside car park in Ayr.

's about 18-20 ft long, about a foot square and has a metal tip at one end. The other end is flat.

It also has two metal loops cast into it that look link attachment points for lifting.

My guess is that it's some sort of heavy duty demolition tool but why it should have been abandoned there (20 years at least) is a mystery to me. It's next to a field that may have had a POW camp in WWII but I don't think that there have been any solid defensive structures in the area.

Tim

[newshound]

> It's about 18-20 ft long, about a foot square and has a metal tip at one

Looks to me like something to prevent cars driving around (say) a security gateway. Doesn't explain the difference between the two ends. Sometimes these concrete lumps are designed to "key" together.

[The Medway Handyman]

> It's about 18-20 ft long, about a foot square and has a metal tip at one

It's exactly the same as a medieval battering ram.

[Tim+]

>

That's my thought too, although clearly it's been updated with a bit of steel and concrete. It turns our the POW camp was about 400 yards away so that's possibly a red herring. I think that there are a couple more like that one in the long grass nearby. Can't imagine why they've been abandoned there other than to be "recycled" as barriers for the perimeter of the car park.

Tim

[Tim Lamb]

The shape is reminiscent of sea defence posts but I doubt concrete would take much insertion battering.

[polygonum]

> It's about 18-20 ft long, about a foot square and has a metal tip at one

Nothing to do with the explosives factory/ies in the area?

[Java Jive]

[Tim+]

Don't think so. If it was to be driven, the point would surely have just one angle.

The more I think about it the more convinced I am that it's an old demolition tool that's been superceded by newer hydraulic hammers, hence its abandonment and recycling as a car park boundary barrier.

Tim

[Dave Liquorice]

Can you post the image to a site that actually works? Browers can displa= y most still images without third party help or loads of bells and whistle= s "to enhance your web experience". I've tried it with/without javascript =

but it's broken either way.

Just post a link direct to the image file.

[<me9]

Looks like the poles my father showed me in the 50s that were erected in fields to deter the enemy in WWII from using them for landing sites. The ones he showed me were close to a POW camp which was there one day and then vanished without a trace in no time at all.

[Tim+]

Seemed to work for others.

Try this:

[Broadback]

>>> It's about 18-20 ft long, about a foot square and has a metal tip at one

Not knowing the size it simply looks like a concrete post to me.

[The Medway Handyman]

>>>>>>>> It's about 18-20 ft long, about a foot square and has a metal tip at one

"It's about 18-20 ft long, about a foot square".

[Dave Liquorice]

They probably have modern browsers with lots of plugins available....

Ta, that works. B-)

It looks like the iron tip is surrounded by the concrete where it flares out. That wouldn't survive much pounding as a demolition spike, so I don't think it's that. I quite like idea of field denial to aircraft.

[harry]

A pile is my guess. To be driven into the ground as part of sea defences.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

There were plenty of arms dumps and explosive workshops in the area, though; might be something that was stocked there in preparation for export to Normandy, Berlin, etc.

[Tim+]

I've had a look around the area and found another two lurking in the long grass which more or less rules out a demolition tool. It's looking more like they might well have been some sort of beach defence against a land invasion although Doonfoot in Ayr seems an odd target. I guess the local POW camp was considered to make it a potential target.

Tim

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Just about the entire coastline was fortified to greater or lesser degree - millions of mines and barbed wire entanglements; it took years for the post-war cleanup and the lives lost weren't few. I wonder if those things orignally had a purpose that we'll never know, but were used in the PoW camp as some sort of exercise lift, with bars put through the hoops and lifted by six or eight men.

[Tim+]

You could be right. I did a google image search for WW2 beach defences and couldn't find anything similar to those structures.

Tim

[Brian Gaff]

This problem also seems to afflict some cosmetic containers, where the stuff is mega tough and the tabe supposedly to remove it breaks cos its, um, so tough! I've tried points of scissors and stabbed my hand many times. Brian