View of interior of gun emplacement

Description View of interior of gun emplacement

Date 26/5/1996

Catalogue Number D 3512 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 673995

Scope and Content Canopy support, World War II six-inch gun emplacement, Hoxa Battery, Hoxa Head, South Ronaldsay, 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 Stanger Head on Flotta and here on Hoxa Head on South Ronaldsay. To counter the threat of aerial attack in World War II, gun emplacements were covered with protective concrete canopies, structurally supported on a system of braced steel vertical stanchions and horizontal beams as seen in this detail of one of the six-inch gun houses. The manufacturer's name, Dorman Long, [CHECK] Middlesbrough, is still faintly visible on the corroded beams. 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.

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