Air-Raid Shelters, Twatt Airfield (Former Hms Tern) is a Grade C listed building in the Orkney Islands local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 15 July 2011. Air-raid shelter.

Air-Raid Shelters, Twatt Airfield (Former Hms Tern)

WRENN ID
hallowed-hinge-moon
Grade
C
Local Planning Authority
Orkney Islands
Constituency
Orkney and Shetland MP: Mr Alistair Carmichael (LD)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
15 July 2011
Type
Air-raid shelter
OS grid reference
HY 259 227
Coordinates
59.08548, -3.29386
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The air-raid shelters at Twatt Airfield, formerly HMS Tern, were built between 1941 and 1943. This group consists of five perimeter shelters located in an open landscape to the southwest of the former Royal Naval Air Service airfield. Each shelter has a rectangular plan and is covered with earthworks. They are constructed from pre-cast sectional concrete, featuring tapering sides and round-arched heads, with brick retaining walls at the entrance and exit passages. The three shelters located to the south have entrances and exits at both ends.

Local climate

Air-Raid Shelters, Twatt Airfield (Former Hms Tern) sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,170 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 90% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 98% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 2 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 2 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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