Wartime Heritage

The Island of Hoy is host to one of the best preserved and least disturbed World War Two defence landscapes in the United Kingdom and can comfortably claim to have the densest concentration of well-preserved wartime sites in Orkney, as well as some of the richest in both Scotland and the whole of the UK.

 

Welcome to the online portal for Hoy’s Wartime Heritage. From here you can find out more about the important role that Hoy played in the Second World War and how its rich material legacy continues to leave a lasting impression on the island today.  Explore Hoy’s incredible archaeology of past conflict virtually and discover ways in which you can get involved in the continuing research and interpretation work being carried out.

These pages have been developed as part of the Legacies of Conflict: Hoy & Walls Wartime Heritage Project, a highly successful community and visitor engagement initiative run by the Island of Hoy Development Trust between 2013 and 2014. The Project and this website have been facilitated through the ScotGrad Graduate Placement Programme and funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the European Regional Development Fund, Orkney Islands Council’s (OIC) Community Development Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF) ‘Sharing Heritage’ Grant Scheme.

 


ScotGrad logo       HIE logo             Europe & Scotland logo             OIC logo

           Lottery logo            Aberdeen University Logo          IoHDT logo


 

 

Explore Further…

Legacies of Conflict

Legacies of Conflict

Hoy & Walls Wartime Heritage Project 2013-14 Project Background In October 2013, the Island of Hoy Development Trust (IoHDT) gained funding from...
Hoy & Walls in WWII

Hoy & Walls in WWII

The successful delivery of the Legacies of Conflict Project has relied upon a sound understanding of the wartime historic environment and the contextual...
Hoy WWII Archaeology

Hoy WWII Archaeology

The proof of Hoy’s incredible WWII legacy lies in the scale and quality of the remains that survive. The island-wide community archaeological survey t...
Then and Now - Hoy at War: A Photographic Journey

Then and Now - Hoy at War: A Photographic Journey

This is an embedded PowerPoint presentation of "Then and Now - Hoy at War: A Photographic Journey by Gavin J Lindsay".    Boom Defence June ...
Get Involved

Get Involved

Although the Legacies of Conflict: Hoy & Walls Wartime Heritage Project came to an end in 2014, there is a still a lot to learn about Hoy’s WWII s...
Further information

Further information

There are a range of resources available at the Island of Hoy Development Trust Office in Longhope to help you find out more about Hoy’s WWII heritage a...

 

3 thoughts on “Wartime Heritage

  1. Dear Sirs

    I visited the oil pumping engines at the Naval Base in 2010 but no one on duty could tell me anything about the history of the engines. I am an Engineer and understand how they work etc. but I would like to know when they were installed. I believe just before WW 2. I would like to know if they were they the first, and if so what happened before that.

    I understand the oil depot was established during WW 1 as some of the newer battle cruisers were running on oil, if only sprayed onto coal to increase temperature.

    Can anyone help me please?

    Best regards, Pete Grenfell

  2. New funding advertised in Tankerness Museum in Kirkwall for the renovation of the visitor centre at Lyness will hopefully allow for the stories of children orphaned by war and conflict to be told. All over the world today there are organisations such as UNICEF and International women’s aid that stand up for families and the vulnerable today in a world wracked by climate change and plastic bottle water pollution that is preventing the growth of plankton in the Oceans on which all life including the Orkney Kittiwake depends.

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