Hoy, Walls, Ore Farm, Munitions Depot

ND39SW 47 centred 30305 93267

Only four out of six ammunition stores survive to the W of the B9047 road about 134m SW of Ore Farm. The four remaining store buildings are at ND 30256 93300, ND 30273 93243, ND 30306 93267 and ND 30340 03291, whilst the sunken bases and blast walls of the two that have been removed are at ND 30290 93324 and ND 30324 93349.

Built of shuttered concrete all are set within a sunken buttressed blast wall with earth banking on the outside. All are rectangular in plan. There a double steel doors and small ventilators in each gable end with large concrete curbs extending from the entrances. On each side of the curb are small concrete platforms. In front of the steel doors are metal barred gates. The roof has a very low pitch with a central row of ventilators.

Internally, numbered concrete piers creating bays with at right angles a metal rolling rack system, which extends outside.

Immediately to the N of the ammunition stores is a grid system of concrete roadways with concrete hut bases dispersed between the roads. The foundations would suggest a large building stood at ND 30177 93536.

In addition, surviving on site are one engine house (ND 30345 93433) and another structure (ND 30434 93364).

This was the main munition depot for the army's heavy anti-aircraft batteries on Hoy. Vehicles reversed up to the doors, hence the prominent curbs; the ammunition would be rolled down the revolving racks and loaded into the trucks before being transported to the batteries.

Visited by RCAHMS (GS), August 1997.