Orkney Smr Note

Date August 1987

Event ID 620956

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Orkney Smr Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/620956

The Hackness Battery and the Martello Tower (OR 1969) together with the tower at Crockness OR 2045) were built 1813-15 to guard the convoy anchorage at Longhope against the threat of American privateers. The Battery was remodelled in 1866 to mount heavier guns, in response to fears of commerce raiding by USA-based units of the 'Fenian Navy', a threat which did not actually materialise. The guns were maintained into the 1890's by which time they were obsolete; they were finally removed about the turn of the Century. As originally constructed the Battery had eight 24-pounder guns firing over a parapet; behind was a barrack-room and underground magazine, the whole enclosed within a boundary wall. In 1866 the parapet was raised and modified to allow for 68-pounder guns to fire through embrasures. The barracks were improved, officers' quarters and a guardroom added at the entrance, and a cookhouse and ablutions block built. Apart from the magazine, the roof of which was dismantled after 1918 for the sake of its bricks, the buildings remain little altered. Mr Cload, the present owner, lives in the officers' quarters. The Battery and its buildings have been kept in excellent order, although some repairs, especiallly to the roof of the barrack-block, will be needed to prevent deterioration setting in.[R1] [R2]

Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) August 1987.