Friday, 20 September 2019
This morning was a relaxing morning since we are not in a hurry to start our driving tour since it should only take a few hours to complete. To be honest, we probably could have seen all the important sites on this island in one day, but the time and cost it took to take the ferry here, I wanted to spend an extra day. That's OK though. We usually travel hard, so it is nice to be able to chill some.
When we finally did get out of bed, we looked out the window and saw blue skies. Wow...it has been a while since it wasn't cloudy and/or rainy. Hurry....let's get out there!
We got in the car and started driving. This island doesn't have the tall mountains of the island Mull we visited, but it really is beautiful.
When we finally did get out of bed, we looked out the window and saw blue skies. Wow...it has been a while since it wasn't cloudy and/or rainy. Hurry....let's get out there!
We got in the car and started driving. This island doesn't have the tall mountains of the island Mull we visited, but it really is beautiful.
Our first road pull-off is this causeway connecting two islands (on the left of the photo). But, this isn't a causeway that was built to allow for easier transportation between these Orkney Islands. It was a barrier built during World War II by direction of Winston Churchill thusly called "Churchill Barriers." There are four of these barriers, now causeways, built to protect Scapa Flow. Scapa Flow is a sheltered bay in the Orkney Islands. The history of Scapa Flow goes back to the Vikings where they would anchor their entire fleet due to protective nature.
During World War i, it was used by the British navy as its main base for its Northern based ships to control the North Sea from Germany. They sunk some ships by the entrance ways for some protection. When Germany was defeated, 74 German ships were held in Scapa Flow while decisions were being made as to what to do with them. After 7 months of being "held," the Germans decided to "escape" causing the British Navy to sink and beach many of their ships. These sunken ships are still seen poking out of the water, and the ones that are too deep, make for playgrounds for scuba divers.
During World War II, England again decided to use Scapa Flow as a main base. On 14 October 1939, a German submarine penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak anchored in Scapa Bay killing over 800 crew. To help protect the harbor better, they sunk more ships to block entryways, and Winston Churchill ordered the building of these barriers.
I don't know why i went into the history of this so much...I guess it just fascinated me some.
During World War i, it was used by the British navy as its main base for its Northern based ships to control the North Sea from Germany. They sunk some ships by the entrance ways for some protection. When Germany was defeated, 74 German ships were held in Scapa Flow while decisions were being made as to what to do with them. After 7 months of being "held," the Germans decided to "escape" causing the British Navy to sink and beach many of their ships. These sunken ships are still seen poking out of the water, and the ones that are too deep, make for playgrounds for scuba divers.
During World War II, England again decided to use Scapa Flow as a main base. On 14 October 1939, a German submarine penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak anchored in Scapa Bay killing over 800 crew. To help protect the harbor better, they sunk more ships to block entryways, and Winston Churchill ordered the building of these barriers.
I don't know why i went into the history of this so much...I guess it just fascinated me some.
Here I am reading about the Churchill Barriers as I look at it.
So, when Churchill ordered the building of these barriers, they had trouble finding people to build them. Then the idea of using POWs came up. England brought 550 Italian POWs that were captured in North Africa to Orkney to build the barriers. While here, the English allowed the POWs to to build a chapel by joining two Nissen Huts together.
The Italians built a facade out of concrete and used scrap material for other items. One of the POWs was obviously an incredible artist and painted the interior.
The Italians built a facade out of concrete and used scrap material for other items. One of the POWs was obviously an incredible artist and painted the interior.
Again...reading as we tour.
Onward to see Barriers 2,3, and 4.
Ah...here are some of those sunken ship I talked about earlier.
Great shot of a Churchill Barrier with a sunken ship.
After a few hours we returned to town and walked around to take advantage of the incredible weather. Tim took a couple of better photos of the St. Magnus Cathedral that we toured yesterday.
Oh...I guess we did tour the Kirkwall museum that was room after room of "Kirkwall-ian" history. It was chock full of artifacts, clothes, archeological findings, manusripts, etc. ranging from Neolithic time to the present time. We could have spent all day in there, but because of the the weather we were anxious to continue walking around.
Here is a cool relic in the museum. This is the lettering off the Royal Oak, the ship that was sunk by the German submarine in WWII. These letters were illegally removed from the ship by a scuba diver in the 1970s and was returned to the museum 20 years later.
Here is a cool relic in the museum. This is the lettering off the Royal Oak, the ship that was sunk by the German submarine in WWII. These letters were illegally removed from the ship by a scuba diver in the 1970s and was returned to the museum 20 years later.
We walked down to the pier and hung out there for a bit looking at the boats.
We the stopped at a pub for a beer and returned to the apartment for dinner. Tomorrow we have to get on a 7:45 AM ferry, so it was an early night tonight.
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