Archaeology Notes
Event ID 709205
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/709205
HY40SE 25 4840 0126 (HY 4840 0126 to HY 4848 0069)
See also:
ND49NW 2 ND 4412 9670 to ND 4452 9641 Hunda Reef Barrier
ND49NE 15 ND 4822 9999 to ND 4785 9952 Churchill Barrier No. 2, Lamb Holm to Glimps Holm (Holm Sound)
ND49NE 16 ND 4730 9870 to ND 4744 9833 Churchill Barrier No. 3, Glimps Holm to Burray (Weddel Sound)
ND49NE 17 ND 4802 9543 to ND 4770 9495 Churchill Barrier No. 4, Burray To South Ronaldsay (Water Sound)
See also corresponding (predecessor) blockships:
HY40SE 8009 Numidian
HY40SE 8013 Thames
HY40SE 8003 Busk
HY20NW 8006 Tarbarka
HY40SE 8001 Lake Neuchatel
HY40SE 8004 Mineh
HY40SE 8007 Redstone
HY40SE 8005 Seriano
HY40SE 8008 Gambhira
HY50SW 8001 Aorangi
Churchill Causeway (No 1) [NAT]
OS 1:10,000 map, 1970.
Visible on air photographs (OS 63/45/146-7, flown 1963)
(Undated) information in NMRS.
The most northerly of 4 concrete block causeways carrying the A961 road. Construction began in 1940 using some Italian prisoners of war but mostly civilian contractors.
Visited by R G Lamb, 1980
The Churchill Barrier was completed in the latter stages of World War II. Vertical air photographs taken during WW II (WL/10 2.22-2.23, flown 4 July 1942 show construction at an early stage, before visible signs of the barrier were showing. Five of the blockships listed above are also visible on the photographs as well as the construction camps on the S shore of the mainland and part of the Italian Prisoner-of-war camp on the N shore of Lamb Holm. The steel towers used in the construction of the barriers can also be seen.
The completed barriers, with abandoned construction camps, are visible on a postwar RAF vertical air photograph (106G/Scot/UK 137, 3014, flown 3 July 1946).
Information from RCAHMS (DE), December 2004.
This causeway carries the A961 public road across Kirk Sound, between the Mainland and Lamb Holm. Kirk Sound is the most northerly of the four sounds on the E side of Scapa Flow.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 10 May 2006.
Kirk Sound is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The name applies to the most northerly of the sounds on the E side of Scapa Flow, beteween Lamb Holm (to the S) and St Mary's village, Holm, Mainland (to the N). It is centred at HY 484 010, and is spanned by Churchill Barrier No. 1 (HY40SE 25).
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 21 March 2007.
