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St Mary's, Rockworks Blockyard, Work Camp
Military Camp (20th Century)
Site Name St Mary's, Rockworks Blockyard, Work Camp
Classification Military Camp (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Admiralty Headquarters; Balfour Beatty Offices; Churchill Barrier No.1
Canmore ID 269585
Site Number HY40SE 69
NGR HY 48138 01346
NGR Description Centred HY 48138 01346
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/269585
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Holm
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY40SE 69 centred 48138 01346
Apart from one large corrugated iron shed at HY 48205 01313, little could be seen of the Admiralty construction camp at the N end of Churchill Barrier No.1 in an area now occupied by the Commodore Hotel and self catering bungalows. Traces of the roadways between the huts are visible in the northern part of the site.
The work camp is visible on WW II RAF vertical air photographs (W/10, 2.23, flown 4 July 1942) and consists of several large sheds which were used to house equipment for breaking up the quarried stone blocks. An accommodation camp of about eighteen huts (the site now occupied by the Commodore Hotel complex) and many more huts with pitched roofs. Also visible are the two 'Blondin' masts which supported the cables from which the stone was placed in the water over Kirk Sound to a similar set of masts on Lamb Holm.
The camp was known as the 'Rockworks' (Cormack 1992) and also contained the main administration blocks of the construction firm Balfour Beatty and the headquarters of the Admiralty overseers.
Visited by RCAHMS (DE), May 1997.
