Twin 6 pound gun emplacement. Interior, detailed view of grafitti on the North wall of the store.

Description Twin 6 pound gun emplacement. Interior, detailed view of grafitti on the North wall of the store.

Date 29/8/1997

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

Catalogue Number D 17980

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 672911

Scope and Content Graffiti, World War II store, Neb Battery, Flotta, Orkney Islands In both World Wars coast batteries were built to protect the channels into Scapa Flow and Kirkwall Bay, where there was an important contraband control. The greatest concentrations of firepower were at the main north-western and southern entrances to the Flow, but the other southern approach through Switha Sound also required special protection which a series of batteries on the south-western headland of Flotta, including Neb, was intended to provide. This detail of a painted patch on the end-wall of the equipment store at Neb Battery shows drawings of some of the utensils stored here, and the outline of the patch itself also probably corresponds with that of a storage locker. The drawings, in painted black outline on a white distemper, appear to represent ladles or pans and what may be a stirrup pump or detonator case. 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/482893