Posted in Trips at 12:00 on 13 February 2023
On the trip back from St Margaret’s Hope to Scotland (which Orcadians, rather than ‘the mainland,’ call the nearest part of Britain – to them ‘the mainland’ is Orkney’s largest island) we passed the gun batteries on South Ronaldsay.
These are I think called the Hoxa Battery.
There were gun emplacements here in both World Wars to protect Scapa Flow. These remains have the look of World War two constructions.


In 2017 I photographed them from a bit further away.
No Comments »
Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 12 February 2023
St Margaret’s Hope was our last stop on Orkney as it was where we picked up the ferry for Gill’s Bay in Caithness. I mentioned it in 2017. Its War Memorial is in the form of a kilted soldier atop a tapering square plinth.

The front of the memorial is dedicated to the men of South Ronaldsay who fell in the Great War:-

War Memorial from rear:-

Word War 2 Dedication, on side of memorial:-

No Comments »
Posted in Shipping, Trips at 22:34 on 13 July 2017
We made the crossing to Orkney from Gills Bay in Caithness via the Pentland Ferries’ catamaran the Pentalina. It skelped along at a fair pace:-

Landfall was at St Margaret’s Hope, South Ronaldsay, the third largest settlement in Orkney:

Closer view of the town:-

This is the Northlink Ferries’ ship Hamnavoe in Hoy Sound on its way from Stromness to Scrabster:-

This video (click on picture to get to my flickr to play it) shows the Hamnavoe steaming through Hoy sound with Hoy in background. Unfortunately I zoomed in and as a result the focus went awry:-

No Comments »