Encyclopedia account of Flotta, island in Orkney Islands

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What is recorded here

Flotta changed from a farming island into a key part of Scapa Flow's wartime defence and later an oil centre, leaving gun sites and industrial works beside older homes.

What this place is

Flotta lies at the southern entrance to Scapa Flow. Low farmland, coastal batteries, a small settlement and a large oil terminal show several very different uses of the island.

People and events

Thousands of service personnel came during both world wars when Scapa Flow was a major naval base. The military population left after each war, sharply changing island work and numbers.

How it was used

Before the wars, families farmed and fished. Soldiers then operated guns, searchlights and camp services; from the 1970s the oil terminal received crude oil carried by pipeline from North Sea fields.

What survives

Concrete gun positions, observation points and other military remains stand around the coast. The working terminal, pier, farms and houses keep the later layers visible beside them.

Why it mattered

Flotta guarded the approach to Britain's main northern naval anchorage and later linked Orkney with North Sea oil. Those two sudden changes remade a small agricultural island within one century.