View of fireplace and chimney remaining from officers' quarters

Description View of fireplace and chimney remaining from officers' quarters

Date 26/5/1996

Catalogue Number C 73022

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 673969

Scope and Content Fireplace and chimney, World War II hut, 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 fireplace and associated chimney-stack are all that remain of the hut which once served as the officers' quarters at Hoxa Battery during World War II. It occupied a position in the centre of the side wall of the hut, almost certainly heating the area which served as the mess or dining hall, and set at a level above the surrounding ground. The fireplace has a brick-built surround and the shouldered stack is neatly constructed of local flagstone masonry. 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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