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Summary

Description

1938-1943. Extensive network of 6 rectangular underground fuel storage reservoir tanks with operational and maintenance access tunnels, valve chambers carved out of the hillside bedrock and predominantly lined in shuttered concrete. At the head of the operational piping tunnel is a small square-plan fan room, and at the end are 6 underground fuel tanks. The tunnel is approximately 350 metres long by 3 metres wide. The tunnel has two pipes laid underneath the concrete floor and accessed by metal inspection covers, connecting each underground tank to the tank farm in Lyness. The tanks, each with valve chamber to control the flow of oil, are of variable dimensions due to the geology of Wee Fea however they are an average of 9 metres wide by 237 metres long and 13.5 metres high, with a capacity of approximately 5.6 million gallons of fuel.

Statement of Special Interest

The underground fuel reservoir complex set in Wee Fea at Lyness was constructed for the Royal Navy between 1938 and 1943 as part of a national programme to protect the Royal Navy fuel depots from aerial attack. It is a monumental and complex engineering achievement and a rare example of an intact underground fuel storage facility constructed to high specifications and engineering standards. It contains rare surviving and largely unaltered machinery, and is part of a wider group with other significant military buildings associated with the First and Second World War in the area (see separate listings).

Built to service the Home Fleet and other Allied naval fleet vessels, underground fuel storage reservoirs played an integral role in the UK's Scond World War defence strategy. This example at Lyness is one of two surviving in Scotland and it remains largely in its original form and condition. The ability to store large amounts of fuel required pioneering engineering skills.

In the early 20th century the Royal Navy used coal to power their fleet. By the beginning of the First World War the Navy were beginning to adopt the use of furnace fuel oil (a heavy and thick crude oil) and this necessitated new facilities to be constructed to store the fuel at all major Admiralty naval bases in the UK. The fuel required purpose built tanks in large depots, onshore equipment, pump houses and power sources. By the Second World War, the Admiralty recognised the threat of possible enemy aerial attack to these fuel depots, therefore they commissioned the construction of underground oil storage reservoirs at strategic sites across the UK to store oil securely in order to be prepared in the event of an aerial attack.

Reservoirs were constructed in the UK to designs by the Civil Engineer in Chief's Department, varying in size depending on the naval base they were serving. In Scotland three reservoirs were constructed and they were located near the major naval bases of Rosyth, Inchindown near Invergordon and Lyness, with some variation in design to account for geology of the sites chosen.

The immense scale of the engineering project for the construction of the reservoir, rare in itself, is a monument to British military engineering. Along with the construction of the afore mentioned reservoirs in Scotland, it was the largest construction in the north of Scotland since the Caledonian Canal; and the largest underground excavation in the UK before the construction of the Ben Cruachan hydro-electric scheme, completed in 1965 (see separate listing). It was constructed to the highest engineering standards, requiring an extraordinary degree of skilled labourers and the use of building resources, all of which were scarce during wartime. The rock excavated formed a spoil heap to the west of the complex. Later, part of the spoil heap would be used to form the foundations of the Golden Wharf at Lyness (see separate listing).

Prior to the First World War, Britain was considered to be most at risk of attack from continental Europe and the British Navy was based on the south coast of England. However the changing political situation at the beginning of the 20th century meant that the threat changed to focus on the German Navy in the Baltic sea. It was this, combined with the geography of the Orkney Islands which was the impetus for moving part of the Grand Fleet to Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. Scapa Flow is is one of the world's largest natural harbours and it is mostly enclosed by surrounding islands, including Hoy, where Lyness overlooks Scapa Flow.

The enormous impact on the Orkney Islands of both World Wars has left us with an important legacy of military structures, many of which do not survive elsewhere in the UK.

By 1942 the naval base at Lyness supported thousands of military and civilian personnel. Lyness would become a self-contained town that provided accommodation, recreational and practical facilities for the number of service men and women who were stationed there during the First and Second World War.

The reservoirs remained in use until the fuel depot was decommissioned circa 1976. Orkney Islands Council purchased the site in 1980.

Listed as part of the review of Lyness (2014).

References

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