Often nicknamed the Glory Crater, the Lochnagar Crater was created by a mine detonation executed by the 179th Tunneling Company Royal Engineers, and has been preserved as a memorial to men and women of all nations who suffered during World War I—with a special service held at 7:28am on the first of every July to begin the annual Battle of the Somme commemorations. The 260-foot (80-meter) wide and 100-foot (30-meter deep) hole is a truly impressive sight, and a reminder of just how deadly the Great War was.
The Lochnagar Crater is often a stop on full-day or multi-day tours of the World War I battlefields and memorials in the Somme that also include visits to the Thiepval Memorial, Delville Wood cemetery, the Australian National Memorial, the Franco-Australian Museum in Villers-Bretonneux, and the battlefields and trenches of the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.
The Lochnagar Crater is located outside the village of La Boisselle, along highway D929 between Albert and Pozières; follow signs to La Grande Mine. Otherwise, join a WWI battlefields tour to visit the site without the hassle of driving.
The crater is outdoors, so visit on a clear, dry day. Each July 1st, a ceremony is held at exactly 7:28am to mark the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest in history.
The mine that created the Lochnagar Crater consisted of 27 tons of explosives and was planted by Welsh miners in a secret tunnel between the Anglo-French and German fronts in La Boisselle. The men had to work in a discreet yet highly effective manner, using bayonets with spliced handles for silence and working barefoot on a floor covered with sandbags. Spoil was passed hand-by-hand in sandbags and stored along the side of the tunnel; it would eventually be used to tamp the charge during the detonation. The men excavated the passageway at a rate of about 18 inches (46 centimeters) a day, eventually creating a tunnel 1,017 feet (310 meters) long, 2.5 feet (0.75 meters) wide, and 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) high—all unbeknownst to the German troops.
