Holm Battery Coast Artillery Battery 195m SW of East Breckan Holm, Scotland

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

The monument is a coast artillery battery, built during the First World War and upgraded during the Second World War. It forms part of a network of coastal batteries constructed during both the First and Second World Wars to defend the key strategic naval harbour of Scapa Flow. Holm Battery overlooks and was built to protect Holm Sound, an important access route into Scapa Flow from the E (before the construction of the Churchill barriers). The remains are visible as a series of concrete structures, hut bases and communication and cabling trenches. The battery comprises two First World War 4-inch gun emplacements and three Second World War brick and concrete gun emplacements: two 12-pounder quick-firing (QF) gun emplacements and a twin 6-pounder emplacement. The associated remains include: a battery observation post; two crew shelters; magazines and searchlight emplacements; two engine houses; a machine gun nest; several concrete hut bases; and a series of cabling and communication trenches. The battery is located on a slope overlooking Holm Sound, at between 10-15m OD.

The scheduling consists of two areas, both irregular on plan, to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction and use is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The scheduling specifically excludes the above-ground elements of the post-and-wire fences around the site and the top 300mm of the surface of the track to allow for their maintenance and upkeep.