General view from W showing battery, left, with the military camp, centre, and the tramway, right foreground.

Description General view from W showing battery, left, with the military camp, centre, and the tramway, right foreground.

Date 25/8/1997

Catalogue Number D 17934 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 600949

Scope and Content World War II Scad Battery, Hoy, 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 southern and north-western entrances to the Flow, and in World War II the northern approaches were further strengthened by an inner defensive line and anti-submarine boom across the Bring Deeps, covered by batteries at Scad Head on Hoy and Houton Head on Mainland. This high-level view across the waters of Scapa Flow shows the wider context of the World War II twin six-pounder battery which was installed on Scad Head in the summer of 1941. It was built here to cover the anti-submarine boom net which makes its landfall on the side of the headland hidden in this view, roughly in line with the track-bed of the inclined plane visible in the right foreground. A linear scar on the headland marks the route of this light railway which linked the isolated battery with the North Hoy road, upslope from the camera viewpoint. The battery campsite lies close to the bay, hidden by the slope in the left foreground. 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.

Medium Colour negative

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