Pillbox, 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. Pillbox.
Pillbox, Twatt Airfield (Former Hms Tern)
- WRENN ID
- moated-stronghold-sienna
- 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
- Pillbox
- OS grid reference
- HY 269 226
- Coordinates
- 59.08407, -3.2766
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
This is a pair of partially dug-in, hexagonal pillboxes built between 1941 and 1943, located at the southern and eastern perimeters of the former Twatt Airfield, which was known as HMS Tern. They are constructed from brick and shuttered concrete, featuring an overhanging flat roof and a small square loophole on each side. The pillboxes are covered with grass and set in an open landscape.
Local climate
Pillbox, 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- 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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