Hold-fast from Stanger Head Coast Battery, detail with water tank behind.

Description Hold-fast from Stanger Head Coast Battery, detail with water tank behind.

Date 23/5/1997

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

Catalogue Number SC 670097

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 21641 CN

Scope and Content World War II gun holdfast and water tank, Stanger Head, 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, the latter covered by the coast batteries on Hoxa Head on South Ronaldsay and here on Stanger Head on Flotta. This damaged fragment of a gun holdfast or bolt-ring is one of the few surviving features from the largely demolished batteries on Stanger Head. It has been hauled out of the ground and set aside as twisted scrap metal, but originally, when complete and in its proper horizontal position, the cast steel ring formed the base mounting of one of the battery's guns, and the rods, originally straight, were set vertically in and around the concrete substructure, giving a rare, above-ground view of the actual depth of the foundations which the guns required. In the background is a large, four-panel square Braithwaite water tank, set high on posts, so that the water could be gravity-fed to the campsites which served the battery and naval signal station. 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/670097

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap