Near the base of the Ulster Tower a rough track, unsuitable for cars, cuts back to the north away from the main road.  A few metres along this track is a small German strongpoint made of concrete and steel rails.  Often described as a machine gun post, it is more likely to have been an observation post.

A small salient, nicknamed The Pope's Nose by the Irish Protestant Ulstermen who were determined to punch it on 1 July 1916, is marked by a German concrete emplacement.  Although the Ulster Division made significant, if temporary, progress that day this position remained in German hands.

On 3 September The Pope’s Nose was attacked by soldiers of the 49th Division, but the Germans successfully counterattacked.  Leutnant Meyer, platoon leader of a machine gun company of German Infantry Regiment No. 66, recalled this attack in 1930:

'Some 30 English had got into the 9 Company trench and attacked the occupants of the dugout by throwing grenades. Lieutenant Kusel had barricaded himself in one half and he was freed, as the English were driven out by a counterattack during which Lt Botticher and Lt Hidrich were killed.  The trenches have completely caved in, and only the dugout entrances are free, the rest is simply a field of craters.'

Das Magdeburgische Infanterie Regiment Nr.66 im Weltkrieg (Berlin: Verlag Tradition, 1930)

On 28 September, the 11th Battalion, The Lancashire Fusiliers, undertook a successful raid against this strongpoint.  Battalion Signalling Officer during this action was John Tolkien.