Documents

Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).

The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  SM90211_Legal Doc

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600014738)

Summary

Description

The monument comprises a gun battery and martello tower of 19th-century date. It is in the care of the Secretary of State for Scotland and is being re-scheduled to clarify the extent of the protected area.

The monument lies on the coast at the Point of Hackness. It comprises a gun battery and a martello tower which were built between 1813 and 1815 to guard the anchorage in Longhope Sound against attacks by American privateers. The battery was originally intended to stand alone; but on the recommendation of Major Smyth, who planned the structure at the request of the Admiralty, two towers were added, one at Hackness and the other at Crockness, to protect it from land assault.

The battery originally mounted eight 24-pounder guns firing en barbette over a sloping parapet and mounted in V-formation on timber traversing carriages. Behind the guns were the soldiers' barrack room and store, and behind that the magazine, a small rectangular structure with a brick vaulted roof (now mostly fallen in) sunk partly below ground and protected by an earth bank. The whole installation was enclosed by a stone wall and ditch on the landward side.

In 1866, the battery was modified to take four 68-pounder guns firing through embrasures. An ammunition store was added behind the salient of the rampart and separate accommodation was added to the barrack for NCOs. Other new buildings included a guard house, officers' quarters, a cookhouse, stores and ablutions block and a separate latrine block.

An additional magazine was constructed around 1892, when the 68-pounders were used for the first time by the Orkney Volunteer Artillery. The guns were removed soon afterwards, and the battery was used during the First World War by the naval personnel who operated the boom defences guarding one of the entrances to Scapa Flow.

The martello tower lies about 200m to the SE of the battery. It is elliptical on plan, the seaward-facing wall being twice as thick as that on the landward side. The tower stands to a height of about 10m and is entered at first-floor level by a door some 4m above ground level. Stairways within the wall of the tower lead from the living quarters on the first floor up to the gun platform and down to the ground-level storeroom, magazine and cistern.

The gun platform was originally constructed to mount a single 24-pounder cannon on a revolving carriage. It was modified in 1866, when a 68-pounder replaced the original gun. Although this was removed in the 1890s, an appropriate replacement has now been installed on a reproduction carriage. The tower was used as a naval signal-post during the First World War.

Some 112m NE of the martello tower stands the concrete anti-blast shelter which stood behind the Coastguard lookout hut, erected c.1940.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to be found. It is irregular with maximum dimensions of 380m NE-SW by 390m NNW-SSE, as shown in red on the accompanying map extract.

The area, which coincides with that in state care, is defined on the landward side by inscribed War Department concrete marker posts numbered 1-8 and on the NE, seaward side by low water level of ordinary spring tides.

Statement of National Importance

The monument is of national importance because it represents a well-built and well-preserved example of a 19th-century coastal battery and an equally well-preserved martello tower, of which there are two other examples in Scotland. The significance of the site is enhanced by the evidence for the modifications which the battery and martello tower underwent during their century-and-a-half of military use, and by the documentary evidence which relates to them. The importance of the site is reflected in its status as a property in state care.

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.

Scheduled monument consent is required to carry out certain work, including repairs, to scheduled monuments. Applications for scheduled monument consent are made to us. We are happy to discuss your proposals with you before you apply and we do not charge for advice or consent. More information about consent and how to apply for it can be found on our website at www.historicenvironment.scot.

Find out more about scheduling and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.