What is recorded here

Mairi and her family farmed Shapinsay through both world wars while men in uniform watched the horizon from Castle Battery. She never complained about the searchlights cutting across the fields at night. When asked, she said only that the lights belonged to everyone defending the islands, and everyone must share their danger.

Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment records Shapinsay, Castle Battery, Nos. 1 and 2 Searchlight Emplacements as Searchlight Battery (20th Century). The official map says its point is accurate as follows: NGR given to the nearest 1m. The record does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Built during World War II, Shapinsay, Castle Battery, Nos. 1 and 2 Searchlight Emplacements were part of the coastal defenses protecting Scotland’s Orkney Islands from potential enemy invasion. They are remembered as a key component of the island's wartime military infrastructure.

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