Scanned image of view from South East of South pillbox

Description Scanned image of view from South East of South pillbox

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

Catalogue Number SC 652659

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 73283

Scope and Content World War II pillbox, Burn of Ore, World War I and II Naval Base, Lyness, 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. The base came to include an extensive area for the repair of anti-submarine boom nets, 16 above-ground oil storage tanks and, beneath the nearby hill of Wee Fea, six very large underground fuel tanks which were capable of storing some 100,000 tons of oil. This semi-sunken pillbox, of a standard six-sided Type 22 variety built of shuttered concrete, stands close to the bridge over the Burn of Ore on the southern boundary of Lyness. Designed for use with rifles and light machine guns, it has gun embrasures in each face of the hexagon. The low-level entrance, now infilled, was in the side opposite from this viewpoint, facing uphill in the direction of the expected attack. 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/652659

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap