Book Scottish Highlands holiday accommodation

Scapa Flow places to visit in the Scottish Highlands

Details

Last Updated on Saturday, 05 May 2012 17:33

Scapa Flow is a large protected sea area that has earned its name in British history as an important naval base in both world wars.

It contains Flotta, now an oil tanker terminal and landfall for undersea pipelines from the oilfields of the North Sea to the east. Scapa saw some 74 warships, the greater part of the German fleet, brought here and either beached by their crews or scuttled in June 1919 on the orders of RearAdmiral Ludwig von Reuter.

Many of the ships have since been salvaged. Others remain as an attractive underwater prey for divers on the hunt for souvenirs or just to satisfy curiosity. In the Second world war, huge convoys of ships gathered here before being escorted across the seas to Russia and to America.

In an attempt to close off the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow, the massive Churchill Barriers were erected in the 1940s, mainly by Italian prisoners of war. A reminder of their stay in Orkney is seen on the little island of Lamb Holm where, inside two Nissen huts, the Italians constructed a beautiful chapel, using scrap materials with a high degree of ingenuity. The chapel was rededicated in 1960 when the designer, Domenico Chiocchcui, a gifted artist, returned to restore some of his paintings.