View of no.1 Gun emplacement showing detail of redented slit on crew shelter, Rerwick Head Battery.

Description View of no.1 Gun emplacement showing detail of redented slit on crew shelter, Rerwick Head Battery.

Date 24/5/1996

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

Catalogue Number SC 673071

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 73230

Scope and Content Rifle loophole, World War II gun emplacement, Rerwick Head Battery, Mainland, Orkney Islands In both World Wars coast batteries were built to protect the channels into Scapa Flow, the greatest concentrations of firepower being at the main north-western and southern entrances to the Flow. In World War II there were also seven coast batteries on the east coast of Orkney Mainland protecting the approaches to Kirkwall Bay, which served as an examination anchorage where foreign shipping was impounded and searched for contraband. These batteries formed the Kirkwall Fire Command centred on Rerwick Head Battery, which also included a shore station for a controlled minefield in Shapinsay Sound. This is a detail of one of the rifle loopholes in the wall of one of the two gun houses for close-range defence if required. The mouth of the loophole is redented in a manner intended to cause attackers' bullets to ricochet, imitating in concrete a style of aperture which had been in vogue since the Renaissance. 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/673071

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap