...to the website of the Orkney Defence Interest Network (ODIN), a group set up to highlight the importance of Orkney’s wartime heritage.
:: :: :: ORKNEY SCIENCE FESTIVAL EVENTS :: :: ::
[please note Ness Battery open day runs til 5pm not 7pm as stated on Science Festival website]
SCIENCE AT WAR IN ORKNEY
Friday 3rd September 5.00 - 6.00 pm Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall
Geoffrey Stell with the story of a range of technologies that gathered intelligence and defended Scapa Flow. World War I saw the use of electricity, wireless and telegraphy, under water as well as on land. In World War II there was radar, in networks of stations and at sea; rockets and hydrogen-filled balloons; underwater indicator loops and remotely-controlled minefields.
OPEN AFTERNOON AT NESS BATTERY
Sunday 5th September 2.00 - 5.00 pm Ness Battery, Stromness
Opening the doors to the most intact World War II gun battery in Britain today. Gun emplacements, observation/.control tower, accommodation huts and mess hall. With photographs and displays. Meet at Ness Battery main gate. Guided tours every half hour, last tour starting 4.30 pm. Admission free. For further information contact Anne on (01856) 873535 ext 2882 or Joyce on ext 2883.
Remembering Scotland At War: Fortress Orkney
Please go and have a look at this brilliant website. There is a new collection titled Fortress Orkney with some great material from WWI and WWII. Lots of images, audio and movies. Highly recommended!
Click here to see the exhibition. (Note: Fortress Orkney is on the second page!]
The strategic significance of the Orkney Islands, off the north of Scotland, has been recognised for centuries. They are sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea and have provided a deep, sheltered natural anchorage for naval fleets.
ODIN’s mission is “To promote the identification, categorisation and preservation of Orkney’s defence heritage, to establish a Wartime Trail in collaboration with others and to raise awareness and understanding of the value of this archaeology and social history in all its aspects throughout the Orkney Islands.”
We have put together a Summer Factsheet 2010, detailing all the events to take part in, exhibitions to see, some of the books to read and some of the things to do over the summer months. You can download it completely free by clicking here!
We welcome ideas and members so, if our aims are of interest, please come and join us.
Images kindly provided by Orkney Library & Archives, James Miller and Rebecca Marr.
