Over the sea to Orkney

Passing Hoxa Head as we enter Scapa Flow at the start of our holiday in Orkney. During both World Wars Scapa Flow was the main anchorage for the British fleet and was heavily fortified. The buildings on the cliffs are the remains of the gun batteries that helped defend the primary entrance to the flow. Mrs T's father was on a minesweeper in the flow on the night in October 1939 that a German u-boat managed to get into the anchorage and to sink the battleship the Royal Oak. That night 833 British sailors drowned.