Battery observation post, detail of window and gun-loop
C 73021
Description Battery observation post, detail of window and gun-loop
Date 26/5/1996
Catalogue Number C 73021
Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images
Copies SC 673968
Scope and Content Window and loophole, World War II Battery Observation Post, 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. This detail of the rear wall of the World War II Battery Observation Post shows the remains of a typical horizontal, wooden-framed window, here closely associated with a rifle loophole for close-range defence. 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.
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Attribution: © RCAHMS
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