Searchlight No.1 emplacement, view from East.

Description Searchlight No.1 emplacement, view from East.

Date 24/5/1996

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

Catalogue Number SC 673077

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 73239 CN

Scope and Content World War II searchlight, 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 front view of one of the two round-fronted searchlight emplacements at Rerwick Head Battery. It shows the cantilevered canopy and the outer edge of the guide-rail mechanism for the sliding steel shutters which made up the front shield of the aperture. The searchlight mechanism itself would have been set in the centre of the half-circle. 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/673077

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap