The First Train in Orkney.
CROCKNESS
Sunset over the Martello Tower, Crockness.
Crockness lies a little beyond Lyness, to the south, and is chiefly noteworthy for its Martello Tower, which, with that at Hackness on the further side of Long Hope Bay, was erected during the Napoleonic Wars, and completed in 1818 as a protection for the harbour. It was in Long Hope Harbour that merchantmen bound for America and the Continent assembled to await convoy, and it is curious that exactly one hundred years later history has repeated itself, and that during the war just concluded the same system of convoy was adopted from Kirkwall, into which harbour all neutral vessels were sent for examination and convoy. It is rather characteristic of our nation that both the Martello Towers and the works at Lyness were completed some time after the Napoleonic Wars and the European War respectively were over!
