Hackness Martello Tower, Orkney

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Hackness Battery and Martello Tower were built in 1813–14, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. French and American warships were wreaking havoc on British and Scandinavian merchant shipping by going ‘north about’, through the Pentland Firth or round Orkney. Longhope Sound provided a safe anchorage.

Martello towers take their name from Mortella Point, Corsica. In 1794, the French mounted two small cannon on a circular masonry tower located here. Together they beat off an attack by two British warships with a combined firepower of 106 guns.

It so impressed the British that more than 100 similar towers were built along England’s south coast when Napoleon threatened to invade in 1803. Hackness and Crockness towers were built a decade later. Aside from another Martello tower guarding the port of Leith, these were the only ones built in Scotland.

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