Detail of remains of mast base.

Description Detail of remains of mast base.

Date 24/8/1997

Catalogue Number SC 642940

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 21725

Scope and Content Gantry bases, World War II Chain Home Low radar station, The Ward, Deerness, Mainland, Orkney Islands From the outbreak of World War II in 1939 early warning of the movement of enemy aircraft was based on Chain Home systems of Radio Direction Finding (RDF) or radar, as it became known, a technique which had been developed in secret since 1935. Forming part of an East Coast Chain Home series which provided long-range detection, two stations were installed in Orkney, one at Netherbutton on East Mainland, about 9.6km south of Kirkwall, and another at Whale Head, close to the north-eastern tip of Sanday. The main features of the stations were the receiver blocks and transmitter blocks with their associated masts and generators for the electricity power supply. In order to remain operational in the event of attack or damage, most Chain Home stations, including the two Orkney sites, also had standby generators and held duplicate equipment in reserve installations which were described as buried or remote. Fuller coverage of Orkney was also provided by a small number of Chain Home Low and Chain Home Extra Low stations, which, as their names imply, were designed to detect low-flying aircraft operating below the range of the Chain Home system. The concrete blocks visible in the rough grass are the bases of the gantry on which Chain Home Low radar aerials were mounted. They stand at the lower end of a combined transmitter and receiver block which is just visible on the right. It was built, probably in 1942, to replace earlier units on this commanding hilltop site in the centre of the Deerness peninsula. 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/642940

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap