RCAHMS Excursion Guide

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Date 1999

Event ID 1022569

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1022569

Between the 8th and 10th September 1999, the RCAHMS Commissioners were taken to visit a number of significant sites recently recorded by the staff on Orkney. To inform this trip an illustrated guide was prepared with a brief summary description of each site, and an introductory text. These short site descriptions were entered into the Canmore database in 2017, but readers are advised to consult the final publication for the most detailed account.

Information from HES (LCK) 30 May 2017

People and Organisations

Related Event(s)

Event	Type	Subtype	Notes	Date
1022528	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	St Peter's was erected in 1836 on the site of the medieval church. It was built by James Sinclair, mason, and William Harvey, wright. The severely plain church retains its original galleried interior and very tall three-decker pulpit. It was built to accommodate '548 sitters st the rate of eighteen inches exclusive of Ministers and Elders seats'. The main structural timber, including the posts supporting the gallery, are of 'Baltic timber' whilst the pews and pulpit are of 'good American timber'. The building cost £373 11s 7d, and the breakdown of how much each heritor paid survives in the Cairsteen Presbytery Minutes. The building is the subject of a current HLF aplication by the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust. [...]	1999
1019701	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	Netherbutton was still under construction at the outbreak of war in September 1939. Indeed, according to some sources, this was the site which the Royal oak was evidently defending against air attack when she was sunk. The station incorporated the usual standard features: an RX or receiver block, surrounded by four wooden masts, about 240 feet high, on concrete bases (which still survive), and a TX or transmitter block with a line of much taller steel masts, each about 350 feet high, two being later used by teh BBC but removed in 1986. The power station at Deepdale remains intact, sme distance to the north, while the remote buried reserve station is about a quarter of a mile away to the east. A rare oblique aerial view of the site, taken by the RAF in 1942, shows all the masts in the position, and, among other things, the concrete platforms for what we have established as rocket or Z-battery defences. [...]	1999
1022531	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	Locally known for obvious reasons as the 'licquorice allsort', this is undoubtedly the most stylish of Orkney's surviving wartime buildings designed for entertainment. Although few other buildings remain in this vicinity this theatre formed part of the main Services Headquarters at North Walls, close, incidentally, to where the Iron Duke was beached for much of the Second World War. Dating from 1942, the garrison theatre is built of black-rendered brickwork, the surviving block originally fronting a parallel set of Nissen huts, one housing a sinema the other a dance hall. The roof raggles and layouts of both are clearly visible in the back garden: the lawn on the south side slopes to the west, being the base for cinema seating, while the northern half is level and served as the dance hall. In the PRO there is an exterior wartime view of the theatre looking towards the south (cinema) side of the building. [...]	1999

RCAHMS Excursion Guide

People and Organisations

Related Event(s)

References