The Orkney Image Library
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The Battery on the Birsay Links taken about 1900 and before the lighthouse was built on the Brough. The two cannon would have been fairly ineffective their barrels pointing towards the dyke!
View Large VersionPicture added on 24 February 2011 at 11:10
Those muzzle-loading cannon, on their old-fashioned carriages, must have been seriously out-of-date even when this photo was taken. There seems to be no restriction on public access, so it can't be a 'live' site. Was it just a dummy or practice battery? One would think such a conspicuous, and presumably long-standing, feature would merit a mention in Marwick's The Place-names of Birsay, but there's no reference to it. Someone out there will know all about it and tell us soon.
Added by Ian Hourston on 24 February 2011
This was the site where the first members of Orkney Golf Club played on a course laid out on the links,if you look close you will see these guys are holding golf clubs date could have been about 1889 for more information on when it was used read Orkney Golf Club by Magnus Work
Added by Golfer on 27 February 2011
Great picture Tommy!
The 2nd Edn. Ordnance Survey (1902) shows the battery very clearly, with the nearby Rifle Range and Target marked.
10th, Birsay, Corps of Orkney Artillery Volunteers, formed 2nd March 1878.
Became No.9 (Birsay) Battery, OAV, March 1880.
The 2nd Edn. Ordnance Survey (1902) shows the battery very clearly, with the nearby Rifle Range and Target marked.
10th, Birsay, Corps of Orkney Artillery Volunteers, formed 2nd March 1878.
Became No.9 (Birsay) Battery, OAV, March 1880.
Added by Andrew Hollinrake on 01 April 2012
was there ever any radio equipment located at this site during WW1 or WW2 ? Did the military have any wooded huts associated with this site ?
Added by Mitch Mitchell on 07 April 2012
I don't think this site had any activity beyond late 19th or early 20th century. No association with WWI or WWII that I know of. No wooden structures there - I think everything to do with the mid-19th-century batteries was stone-built, apart perhaps from structures to do with the rifle ranges (or if we are going to be pedantic, carbine ranges).
Added by Andrew Hollinrake on 10 April 2012
By c. 1900 the Orkney Volunteers had Long Lee Enfield (or perhaps Lee-Metfords) (you can see a transition to charger-loading Long Lee Enfields from one summer camp to the next in old photos). If the ranges continued into this era, would they ave been reclassified as rifle ranges, or relegated to use with Morris Tube or .22LR rifles? The .303 had a far greater danger template than the .450 Martini Henry, especially with reduced charge carbine loads, but that would not have mattered if the danger area was out to sea.
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Added by Chris Werb on 17 August 2016
Birsay
