When we reached Hoy the weather had turned for the worse! However, just off the ferry was the Scapa Flow Museum, somewhere we had been looking forward to visiting for some time and a showery day was perfect!
Scapa Flow is the massive 'safe' harbour created inside the many islands south of mainland Orkney. Famously used in the first and second world wars for the protection, refuelling and maintenance of our Home Fleet. There was also many people involved in keeping the harbour secure, using block ships, netting suspended from floating booms, the Churchill Barriers as well as many other methods.
In 1919 the German Navy scuttled their fleet after defeat and 52 of their battleships were sunk, most of which have since been salvaged.
There are no campsites on Hoy so we were wild camping for the 4 nights we were there.
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| Massive prop from HMS Hampshire sunk off Marwick Head |
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| Crane used to make the boom netting. |
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| Boilers used in the process to pump fuel oil. |
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| Herbert Morris Crane - Phil's interest! |
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| We had a wild night parked up on Pegal Head! |
We visited Hackness Martello tower and Battery for a tour - a long tour - but very interesting! |
| Dee was given the key to open up! |
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| Great view from the top. |
We stayed at Rackwick to hike to 'The Old Man of Hoy' and beyond to St John's Head, at 355m the highest vertical cliff in the UK. We had our first glimpse of the Old Man from the ferry to Stromness at the beginning of June on route to Shetland so it was nice to get up close.
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| There he is! |
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| The Old Man! |
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| An interesting rock full of holes |
As it happens, Rackwick is where the main power cable comes in from the mainland to Orkney - and it was being replaced while we were there. They were literally pulling the cable ashore, so very interesting to watch and we chatted to a few of the riggers working there who told us all the details.
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| The main red ship was laying the cable with small boats pulling it to shore |
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| At last they pulled the cable ashore! |
We stayed in the carpark near to the beach for 3 nights, a lovely location with beautiful views all round. We saw a pair of Merlins and also a pair of Hen Harriers while we were there.
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| Remote but surprisingly good internet here! |
The beach at Rackwick has very large boulders of pinkish hues - very photogenic but not so good for Purdy to walk on! There were plenty of other places for her to explore though.
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| Purdy cooling off in the cool peaty water. |
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| Beautiful Rackwick beach |
On our last day we visited a tomb inside a massive rock - called the Dwarfie Stane which is 5000 years old. It's amazing they hollowed this slab of rock out just using a sharp bit of pebble! The smaller rock in front used to slot into the doorway.
Outside the Scapa Flow museum we had a personal look in their Romney Hut where we saw Otter Bank, a lovely boat that was a travelling bank for The Bank of Scotland - the only one known in the world! She went all around the islands until 1970 and will be part of a boat exhibition that is not yet ready in Stromness.
We really enjoyed Hoy and would definitely return. We were also pleasantly surprised that wild camping was easy in nice isolated spots with not many 'campervans' about - just how we like it! At Rackwick we had the car park to ourselves on our last night.
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| Muy crammed on to the return ferry. |
