View of wooden shed from West

Description View of wooden shed from West

Date 26/5/1996

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number SC 643651

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 66966

Scope and Content Timber huts, World War II airfield, Hatston, Kirkwall, Mainland, Orkney Islands In World War II there were four main military airfields in Orkney, two of which were originally operated by the Royal Navy (Twatt and Hatston) and two by the Royal Air Force (Skeabrae and Grimsetter), Grimsetter, now Kirkwall Airport, being transferred to the Royal Navy from 1943 to 1945. Hatston, operational at the outbreak of war in September 1939 and shortly afterwards commissioned as HMS Sparrowhawk, had the distinction of being the first purpose-built Royal Naval Air Station in Britain and the first aerodrome in Scotland to have runways with hard tarmacadam surfaces. This long range of timber-built huts, evidently made up of two conjoined units, was originally associated with the naval airfield at Hatston, probably serving either as flight huts and/or offices. From 1945 until 1978 most of the timber-built wartime accommodation huts at Hatston continued in use, mainly as council housing, in an area which came to be nicknamed 'Hell's Half Acre'. At the heart of the Orkney archipelago, Scapa Flow was the main fleet anchorage for the Royal Navy during both World Wars. Its vital importance led to the creation of one of the most concentrated defence networks in Britain. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/643651

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap