Archaeology Notes

Event ID 644418

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/644418

HY41SE 5 4524 1158.

(HY 4524 1158) Cromwell's Fort (NR)

OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed.,(1903).

A small fort with ramparts of earth and two small irregular bastions to the sea, made by the order of Cromwell.

R Pococke 1887.

It is unlikely that anything remains above ground of this Cromwellian fort. The field-work on the edge of the little promontory W of the coastguard station seems to represent mainly the gun positions of a Volunteer Battery, with additions made during the late (1914-18) war. But, in preparing the ground for some recent cottages fronting the shore road several yards further E, the contractor found evidence of a trench, 6ft deep and provided with a fire-step. This trench ran apparently towards Weyland (HY 4550 1137).

RCAHMS 1946.

Recent housing development has completely obliterated the defensive-work described by RCAHMS.

Visited by OS (NKB) 5 April 1964.

Cromwell's fort is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 2 and a half-inch map (Orkney and Shetland (Orkney) 1882, sheet cviii) as comprising three batteries and a flagstaff, typical on plan of the mid to late 19th century volunteer gun platforms.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) notes that 'very little of the original of this fort remains -when Cromwell's soldiers penetrated as far north as Orkney, they threw up a rude temporary fort on the spur of the [?] to the east of Kirkwall Harbour. It is now converted into a fort or battery for the use of the 1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers'.

Information from RCAHMS (PM) 31 July 2002

ONB 1882