The Holms

These images are some of what's left on Flat Holm. I couldn't do all of the gun emplacements 'cause the gull colony was in full swing rearing chicks and gulls are aggressive.
Didn't get shat on luckily but I discovered that when they dive at your head a discharging flash gun on full in the face makes them think twice before trying it again.
There are 2 points of interest on this island the defenses & the remains of the Cholera sanatorium and laundry block.
More extensive info here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Holm
When you get here there is a very nice warden & some trainees who will give you a talk on what you can and cannot do.
Most of these photos fall into the cannot do camp........
pics

The derelict pier at Weston.



Steep Holm on the way out.



Gun emplacement.







Ammo stores.







There are a lot of "bunkers" (if that is what they are) constructed like this.













Plenty of these.



This I found interesting - look at the difference between the bore & the casing. This was made to take a lot of punishment.



Well or pit of some sort I think.



One minute it's raining then..



Poetry even.



This looks Second World War.





There's a chick/fledgeling in the left corner & it's parent was the most persistent of all the angry birds.
Flash gun to the rescue.... held it above my head anywhere near gulls after this.





Foghorn - wasn't supposed to be this close either.



I'll do the sanatorium on a later post.
Thanks for looking.

Great shots, Thanks

You sure you didn't stumble on a remake of The Birds, Interesting report and Lovely pics, I enjoyed it, Thanks

Good luck at avoiding the gulls, I know that they can be aggressive especially when looking after their chicks. Good photography though.

Very nice!

Great report and images,Thanks for sharing

Great place. Would love a mooch around here.

Quote-This I found interesting - look at the difference between the bore & the casing. This was made to take a lot of punishment-Quote

This is the back end of the barrel - from the trunnions to 'touch hole' and the hole one sees is the bit of the bore that contained the charge Obviously this end of the barrel was made much thicker to contain the initial pressure of the charge igniting. The actual bit of the barrel that contained the projectile and which would have had a much larger diameter bore, has been gas axed off by some itinerant scrap merchant when these old emplacements were decommissioned and scrapped.

For anybody interested the manufacture and proofing of these early artillery pieces makes very interesting reading as does the ongoing upgrading of the actual batteries themselves.

Dirus_Strictus said:

Quote-This I found interesting - look at the difference between the bore & the casing. This was made to take a lot of punishment-Quote

This is the back end of the barrel - from the trunnions to 'touch hole' and the hole one sees is the bit of the bore that contained the charge Obviously this end of the barrel was made much thicker to contain the initial pressure of the charge igniting. The actual bit of the barrel that contained the projectile and which would have had a much larger diameter bore, has been gas axed off by some itinerant scrap merchant when these old emplacements were decommissioned and scrapped.

For anybody interested the manufacture and proofing of these early artillery pieces makes very interesting reading as does the ongoing upgrading of the actual batteries themselves.

Click to expand...

The cannons are 7.5" Armstrong/RML muzzle loading guns - you can see an intact one in pic 3, there's a bunch of them there, most are completely intact so I very much doubt it was axed for scrap, more likely to make it easier to move to build the WW2 emplacements, others were buried for the same reason.

The fog horns are no-longer in use, but the installation on Flatholm has been restored for posterity.

Fantastic, inspiring images as always!

Looks really interesting, nice work Infraredd