View of workshop from North

Description View of workshop from North

Date 26/5/1996

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

Catalogue Number SC 643653

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 66968

Scope and Content Workshop, 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. Standing on a rubble-built masonry base, this gabled building, probably a transport workshop, is evidently very little altered from its wartime appearance and construction. It is clad in corrugated metal sheets, with heavy duty riveted steel doors, incorporating a wicket entrance, and is lit by large, multi-pane windows in the side walls. 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/643653

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap