Today we are docked at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. Scapa Flow is the 2nd biggest natural harbour in the world (after Sydney) and has a lot of history. What remained of the German fleet was deliberately scuttled here at the end of WW1, by the command of Admiral Von Reuter, who was concerned that the British or French might commandeer these ships and use them against Germany in the event that the ongoing peace negotiations failed. 52 of the 74 vessels were successfully sunk by their skeleton crews (most of the sailors had already been repatriated), who then abandoned ship, so these ships are not war graves, and indeed, many of them were salvaged for scrap metal in the inter-war period. Today, only a few of these wrecks remain and they are popular diving sites.
Scapa Flow's other historical incident happened at the beginning of WW2, when it housed the British home fleet. A single U boat managed to slip past some block ships intending to do as much damage as possible, only to find that the fleet was out of port. The HMS Royal Oak was still in port as it was rather obsolete and could not keep up with the rest of the fleet. It was being used as a training vessel and many of the 835 dead were "boy sailors", some as young as 14 or 15.
We headed out on our tour bus along Scapa Flow and saw the green buoy that marks the Royal Oak war grave and continued on to Skara Brae.
Skara Brae is a Neolithic settlement that was discovered in the mid 19th century after a large storm blew the tops off some sand dunes and uncovered some of the huts. We had a short tour of the houses, complete with their stone beds, stone chairs, stone dressers and stone toilets. It really does make you wonder just how accurate the Flintstones was!
Today's fascinating fact is that Skara Brae is over 5000 years old, which makes it older than the great pyramids at Giza and older than Stonehenge.
After touring the settlement we went to nearby Skail House, which was originally a Viking drinking hall and has been the home of the local lairds for the last 400 years. It's reputably haunted, but I saw no sign of any ghosts.
After this we drove back along the other side of the loch and passed the Ring of Brodgar and the Sheerness Stones, which is considered to be the oldest henge in the UK.
On returning to the ship just after lunch we hopped on the shuttle bus into town to see St Magnus cathedral and to sample some Orkneys ice cream - which I can definitely recommend.
Then it was back to the ship for another dip in the hot tub before dinner. After dinner we headed up to the Explorer's lounge for the Name That Tune quiz. But we didn't manage to win today.
I'm so glad you managed to see such a lot of Orkney in your one day. It's not enough. The Stones of Stenness have always been a favourite of mine - there's something about them. It's a shame the farmer blew up the fourth one.
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