View from E.

Description View from E.

Date 21/5/1996

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

Catalogue Number D 3092

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 654114

Scope and Content World War II dome trainer, Rinnigill, Hoy, Orkney Islands At Lyness on Hoy, close to the sounds which made up the main fleet anchorage, naval quarters, stores and an oil depot were established during World War I and were considerably developed in World War II to become the Base Headquarters, HMS Proserpine. In World War II additional support facilities were also established at Rinnigill, opposite Lyness on the southern shore of Ore Bay. These came to include a Royal Navy Radar Centre and Air Service training unit, and one of the most conspicuous of the few surviving wartime buildings at Rinnigill is that which housed a dome or night-attack trainer for aerial navigation and gunnery practice. This large brick building stands near the southern edge of the former military establishment at Rinnigill and still retains traces of its black wartime camouflage. A solid, well-buttressed structure, its gabled exterior gives little clue to its wartime function and internal arrangements as a dome or link trainer used to simulate realistic airborne conditions of navigation and gunnery, especially at night-time. The entrance is in the porch at the left end of the gable and the annex on the right contained an engine. 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/477185