View from South West

Description View from South West

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

Catalogue Number SC 652648

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 17616 CN

Scope and Content World War II shed, World War I and II Naval Base, Lyness, Hoy, Orkney Islands During both World Wars the influx of tens of thousands of military and civilian personnel into Orkney created a huge demand for residential and communal buildings. Purpose-built accommodation huts and service buildings were thus introduced on a massive scale, generally of the mass-produced and pre-fabricated types which prevailed elsewhere in wartime Britain. Named after its World War I inventor, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Nissen, the Nissen hut was undoubtedly the most popular type, its curved profile and corrugated steel sheeting an ubiquitous feature of most military sites throughout Orkney and elsewhere. It came in three different widths - 16 feet (4.88m), 24 feet (7.32m) and 30 feet (9.15m) - but a curved roof hut was not necessarily a Nissen; it might be a Handcraft, Quonset, Iris or Romney hut which differed from a Nissen in scale or technical specifications. Whatever the precise hut type, however, Orkney retains a higher proportion of wartime buildings adapted to peacetime uses than most other areas of the United Kingdom. This is the front of a large shed of World War II origin which stands to the north of the pumping station at Lyness, set within an embankment which marked the rear boundary of the wartime boom slab and repair yard. With its curved profile and corrugated steel sheet covering, it looks like a large Nissen, but is probably of a closely similar type, possibly a Romney hut. The sides are based on low, neatly-restored masonry walls, and the sliding front doors have been modernised. 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/652648

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap