Hackness Martello Tower and Battery has reopened for the season following the completion of a stage of ongoing essential conservation works, allowing visitors to once again explore rare and well-preserved coastal defences built to protect merchant shipping interests during the Napoleonic Wars.
The battery joins Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces in Kirkwall, which has recently reopened further areas of the site to the public, where visitors can explore more of the town’s oldest surviving domestic building and one of the best-preserved buildings from the medieval era.
The sites join a number of HES sites across Orkney welcoming visitors this season. Visitors can find out more about sites and plan their visits on our website our website.
Sian Evans, Regional Visitor and Community Manager (North) at Historic Environment Scotland, said:
We’re happy to be welcoming visitors back to these two iconic sites. These historic attractions contain invaluable stories about Scotland's past, and we're thrilled that they can once again be explored.
Some partial restrictions may remain in place at some sites while the high-level masonry programme is ongoing. Booking in advance is recommended at all ticketed sites. Information about individual sites, including opening dates and times, can be found at historyawaits.scot.
All seasonal sites will close on 30 September unless otherwise specified.
More information about the high level masonry programme can be found on the Historic Environment Scotland blog.
About Historic Environment Scotland (HES)
- We are the lead body for Scotland’s historic environment, a charity dedicated to the advancement of heritage, culture, education and environmental protection. It is at the forefront of researching and understanding the historic environment and addressing the impacts of climate change on its future, investigating and recording architectural and archaeological sites and landscapes across Scotland and caring for more than 300 properties of national importance. We are also the lead on delivering Scotland's strategy for the historic environment, Our Past, Our Future.
- Historic Scotland, Scran, Canmore, The National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP), The Engine Shed, Stirling Castle, and Edinburgh Castle are sub-brands of HES.
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For further information, please contact:
Laura Ely
Historic Environment Scotland Media Office
07721 959 962
communications@hes.scot