Archaeology Notes

Event ID 745557

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/745557

ND39SE 35 37343 92586

Stanger Head Naval Signal Station is situated some 300m NW of the coast battery (ND39SE 11). It consists of a long building with an observation tower in the centre. Internally many of the rooms and compartments survive, however, the stairs to the tower have been deliberately collapsed so as to deny access due to the dangerous condition of parts of the tower.

In the immediate area surrounding the station are several upstanding buildings, including generator rooms, oil storage buildings, one of which retains the oil tank within, air-raid shelters and a water tank. The associated military camp lay immediately to the N and several of the hut bases are clearly visible, two of which still retain the upstanding chimney stacks.

Immediately NE of the camp are the remains of the water collection system, a large enclosure divided into two parts surrounded by a low concrete wall, one sloping northwards to collect water the other enclosure being utilised as the reservoir, 'water was a problem on Flotta, the large artificial catchment near Stanger Head being a quite inadequate source of supply for the sudden influx of troops' (Hewison 1985). The system would appear to have been constructed using corrugated iron sheets supported by wooden posts, some of which survive, laid out to slope northwards towards the reservoir. Some of the corrugated iron sheets are still in situ at the edge of the enclosure.

Visited by RCAHMS (DE) May 1996

ND 372 924 WWII concrete post-base.

Sponsors: Historic Scoland, Orkney Archaeological Trust.

G Wilson and H Moore 1997.