Scanned image of view of World War I gun emplacement from South

Description Scanned image of view of World War I gun emplacement from South

Date 26/5/1996

Catalogue Number SC 673974

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 73031

Scope and Content World War I four-inch gun emplacements, 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 view shows, in the foreground, the remains of a pair of World War I four-inch gun emplacements, each laid out behind a pointed elliptical parapet and linked by a turf-built breastwork. The gun would have been mounted in the centre of the barbette and fired over the lower arc of the parapet. A second pair of four-inch guns can be seen in the distance, and the mound on the skyline to the right marks the crest of the associated magazine close to where the hut which served as the Battery Observation Post would have been sited. 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/673974

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap