More external exhibits at Lyness Naval Museum, Hoy, Orkney.

A naval mine:-

Oil pipes:-

A propeller from HMS Hampshire:-

The last remaining oil tank at Lyness. Now houses museum exhibits:-

The Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum is almost directly ahead of you as you disembark from the ferry at Lyness, Hoy.

It’s not very prepossessing from the outside but is packed with exhibits relating to the miltary use of Scapa Flow in the two World Wars.

Several naval guns lie in the forecourt:-

You’ll see in the first picture two information boards. This board relates to the complex as a whole:-

Also exterior to the main museum is this example of anti-torpedo netting:-

Orphir is on the south of mainland Orkney, near the ferry terminal at Houton. We visited it the day before Lyness as we were scoping out the possibilities of taking the car over to Hoy. It turned out you had to book that two or three days in advance. We ended up as foot passengers.

At Orphir there is a Visitor Cente devoted to the Orkneyinga Saga as it was here there was a Viking drinking hall and where a certain Sven Breastrope (Sveinn Brestrope) was murdered. There are the usual display boards and also a video dramatising the relevant bit of the saga. Unlike at many Orkney attractions we were the sole visitors.

A modern cemetery lies to the south of the site.

Plaque on cemetery wall. Bu means residence:-

Remains of Viking drinking hall from northeast:-

Remains of Viking drinking hall looking southeast:-

Remains of Viking drinking hall looking south:-

Remains of Viking drinking hall looking north from cemetery wall. Orkneyinga Saga Visitor Centre to left rear, farm buildings to right:-

Almost the first thing you notice making your way out of the ferry terminal at Lyness on Hoy, apart from the last remaining oil tank servicing what was the naval base there and the building housing the Lyness Naval Museum is two flags and two upright stone markers.

This is the Arctic Convoy Memorial. Some of the convoys’ ships sailed from Scapa Flow.

Memorial from road:-

Memorial Plaza:-

Memorial Dedication:-

Russian Inscription and Flag. (I note that the flag, strictly, should be that of the USSR):-

Russian inscription:-

British Inscription and Flag:-

British Inscription:-

Ahoy-hoy was the suggestion of the inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell for the greeting people should use when answering the telephone. I couldn’t avoid thinking of it as we approached the island of Hoy across Scapa Flow on the ferry crossing from the terminal at Houton to Lyness.

Hoy from ferry:-

Approaching Lyness:-

Plaque at Lyness Ferry Terminal commemorating the salvaging of ships from the scuttled German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow. Apparently the metal from the ships found use in the space programme as it was uncontaminated by radioactive fallout:-

Old Fortified Building on Hoy seen from Lyness Naval Cemetery. This must have been to do with either or both of the World Wars:-

The Hoy Hotel. Art Deco/Moderne style. We met an Australian photographing the building. He had come to Hoy as that was his surname:-

Photo in the Lyness Naval Museum of the Garrison Theatre, Hoy, built by the Royal Marines. Now no more except for the foyer:-

One hundred years ago today, on 9^th July, 1917, just before midnight, HMS Vanguard, a St Vincent class dreadnought, suddenly blew up while at anchor in Scapa Flow, Orkney. 843 of the 845 men on board died.

This memorial to the ship and those who died in the explosion lies in the Royal Naval Cemetery at Lyness on the island of Hoy, Orkney, which we visited on our recent visit there.