Rich Ford
Churchill Barrier
The Churchill Barriers are a series of four causeways in the Orkney Islands with a total length of 1.5 miles (2.3km). They link the Orkney Mainland in the north to the island of South Ronaldsay via Burray and the two smaller islands of Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm.
The barriers were built in the 1940s primarily as naval defences to protect the anchorage at Scapa Flow, but now serve as road links, carrying the A961 road from Kirkwall to Burwick.
The bases of the barriers were built from gabions enclosing 250,000 tons of broken rock, from quarries on Orkney. The gabions were dropped into place from overhead cableways into waters up to 59 feet deep. The bases were then covered with 66,000 locally-cast concrete blocks in five-tonne and ten-tonne sizes. The five-ton blocks were laid on the core, and the ten-tonne blocks were arranged on the sides in a random pattern to act as wave-breaks.
Churchill Barrier
The Churchill Barriers are a series of four causeways in the Orkney Islands with a total length of 1.5 miles (2.3km). They link the Orkney Mainland in the north to the island of South Ronaldsay via Burray and the two smaller islands of Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm.
The barriers were built in the 1940s primarily as naval defences to protect the anchorage at Scapa Flow, but now serve as road links, carrying the A961 road from Kirkwall to Burwick.
The bases of the barriers were built from gabions enclosing 250,000 tons of broken rock, from quarries on Orkney. The gabions were dropped into place from overhead cableways into waters up to 59 feet deep. The bases were then covered with 66,000 locally-cast concrete blocks in five-tonne and ten-tonne sizes. The five-ton blocks were laid on the core, and the ten-tonne blocks were arranged on the sides in a random pattern to act as wave-breaks.