Ness Battery, No.3 Battery
Coastal Battery (First World War)
Site Name Ness Battery, No.3 Battery
Classification Coastal Battery (First World War)
Alternative Name(s) World War I; Stromness
Canmore ID 173898
Site Number HY20NW 27.01
NGR HY 24958 07739
NGR Description HY 24941 07749, HY 24958 07739 and HY 24976 07735
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/173898
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Stromness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
The final decision to make Scapa Flow the main base for the Grand Fleet in the event of war (over the Invergordon dockyard in the Firth of Cromarty) was made only on the eve of war. As a consequence, in August 1914, the anchorage was undefended. It was only in mid-1915 that the anchorage was secured by guns, anti-submarine booms and blockships. In the end there were 13 batteries around the approaches to Scapa Flow
The three Ness batteries, near Stromness, protected the NW entrance to Scapa Flow, Hoy Sound. The strong currents in Hoy Sound prevented the deployment of anti-submarine nets.
Ness Battery No.3 was equipped with three 5-inch naval guns purchased from the Bethlehem Steel Co of America. Unlike the 6-inch guns at the other two Ness Batteries, the 5-inch guns (capable of 8-9 rounds a minute) were designed for use against smaller, faster-moving targets, such as destroyers. The guns were manned by Territorial Royal Garrison Artillerymen.
Three concrete open emplacements with the double semi-circular rock cut passages to one magazine (HY 24977 07766) and the most westerly emplacement having a single passage to second (HY 24934 07784).
Information from HS/RCAHMS World War One Audit Project (GJB) 23 September 2013.
HY20NW 27.01 24941 07749, 24958 07739 and 24976 07735
This World War I coast battery is situated on the golf course about 200m SE of the World War II gun-emplacemnts. Three concrete open emplacements with the double semi-circular rock cut passages to one magazine (HY 24977 07766) and the most westerly emplacement having a single passage to second (HY 24934 07784).
The battery was armed with three 5.5-inch guns from the United States of America, with emplacements constructed to match. All the emplacements have ready-use ammunition lockers built into the concrete parapet on each side of the holdfast.
The three emplacements and two magazines are visible on RAF vertical air photographs (CPE/Scot/UK 185, 2439-2440, flown 9 October 2004).
Visited by RCAHMS (DE, GS, August 2000)
Laser Scanning (8 May 2012 - 11 December 2012)
HY 24866 07926 A laser scan survey of the Ness Battery was carried out 8 May – 11 December 2012. Scans were taken of the interior and exterior of the two 6" gun emplacements, their associated gun crew accommodation and the entrance stairwell, corridor and rooms of their associated magazines.
Archive: RCAHMS
Funder: Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme
Mark Littlewood, ORCA
2012
Project (March 2013 - September 2013)
A project to characterise the quantity and quality of the Scottish resource of known surviving remains of the First World War. Carried out in partnership between Historic Scotland and RCAHMS.
