Lyness and South Walls

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13 June 2017

We took the van on the mid-morning ferry to Lyness on the island of Hoy. Lyness is on the shores of Scapa Flow and in both world wars was an important naval base as a large part of the British Fleet was anchored near there. In an old oil pumping station, we looked around an exhibition describing the main events of the time including the 1919 scuttling of many German ships that were interned following the armistice and the 1939 sinking of the battleship Royal Oak by a German U boat.

The small island of South Walls is attached to Hoy by a causeway and we had a very pleasant afternoon there on a guided tour of the Harkness Battery and Martello Tower which were built in the early 1800s to protect Longhope Bay, an anchorage at the time.

Finally we drove along the remote east coast and then over to the west to the small settlement of Rackwick which is scenically surrounded by hills and sea cliffs. We spent the night on Rackwick’s car park.

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