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Flotta

Island
Flotta
Photo: Chris, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Report the wrong picture

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.

Read the whole record

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.

Sources for this account

Sources checked 16 August 2026.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) r15671047

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Photo credits
  • Iain Macaulay, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Colin Park, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Claire Pegrum, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Calum McRoberts, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Rude Health, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Sandy Gerrard, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Gordon Hatton, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Derek Mayes, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Flotta, Flotta Oil TerminalBuilding · 733 ydFlotta, Peerie LurdyBuilding (20th Century), Hut (first World War), Museum (21st Century) · 842 ydPan HopeArchaeological Feature (possible) · 957 ydFlotta Oil TerminalOil Pipeline Terminal (modern) · 1118 ydFlotta Oil Terminal, Waste Management, Decontamination BayConcrete Structure (late 20th Century) - (mid 21st Century) · 1119 ydFlotta, West Hill, Navy Signal Station and Radio StationNaval Signal Station (first World War), Radio Station (second World War) · 1156 ydPanPier · 1211 ydFlotta Oil Terminal, Power Generation Area, Electricity Generating StationElectricity Production Site (late 20th Century) - (21st Century) · 1423 ydFlotta, Kirkie TaingCleared Slipway (post Medieval), Naust (post Medieval) · 1475 ydFlotta, SutherlandCinema (20th Century), Theatre (20th Century) · 1527 ydTween the WicksBay · 1.8 miCalf of FlottaIslet · 1.9 mi

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