Orkney Family Road Trip – Part 2: Arriving at Orkney, The Italian Chapel and Scapa Beach

After the crazy start to our day, I’m pleased to report that we did make it to the ferry port in time! Thank goodness I’m the sort of person who plans plenty of extra time into my excursions! I’m also pleased to say that that was also the only hiccup to our adventure, thank goodness!

Stroma and the Batteries

It was a lovely journey across to Orkney, a really smooth crossing, with lots to see. My husband can get sea sick but with some medication beforehand he survived the excursion, which took roughly an hour. It was the first time on a boat for the boys, who were 3 and 5 at the time, and they loved it!

The island of Stroma was deserted in the early 60s, and now houses mostly sheep and other wildlife.

Orkney has a rich wartime history, and if you look closely, you can see old war related artefacts everywhere. As you get close to entering the harbour, you pass South Ronaldsay, which is filled with military buildings, such as these batteries. They’re quite sinister looking! On a later visit to Orkney we would also visit Hoy, another of the islands rich in wartime history!

The Italian Chapel

The first visit on the island was to the Italian chapel (more wartime history incoming!) Italian prisoners of war from the 2nd world war were bought here to help build barriers to prevent access to the islands via Scapa flow, after a German submarine had managed to sneak in and sink the HMS Royal Oak, taking 836 lives with it! The chaplain with the prisoners requested a chapel, and their wish was granted. 2 Nissen huts were given to the prisoners of war to fulfil their needs. Amongst the prisoners was a talented artist, Domenico Chiocchetti, who skilfully painted the most beautiful artwork inside the chapel. The painting over the alter was inspired by an image on a prayer card that he was given from his mother.

It was lovely to find out that members of the artists family still visit the chapel, and work closely with the preservation committee. I believe work has also been undertaken to restore artwork in places in recent years.

It was a beautiful place to visit, and another place I took far too many photos of! The artwork is stunning, and when there are no other tourists in there, it had a wonderful peaceful ambience about it.

Scapa Beach

I mentioned in a previous post, about our first ever road trip, that our visits to most Scottish towns/areas now almost always include a distillery tour, where available, for my husband – and our visit to Orkney was no different! Not a place for children, I took the boys to Scapa beach instead – what a beautiful stretch of coastline!

For those with families, you can’t go wrong visiting the beach! Come rain or shine, children just LOVE the beach! We were fortunate that we had good weather on this day, and we could enjoy Scapa beach in all its glory! From the shiny pebbles, to the soft sand and the gentle waves lapping at the shore, it was a brilliant afternoon.

Orkney has lots of beaches, and whilst our trip this time was short and we didn’t get to visit any more of them, we did on a later trip, and they were never disappointing – but that’s a story for another post!

Meet the blogger!

I thought it’d be fun to share a photo of me. My husband offered to take a photo of me as I sat relaxing on a bench, how thoughtful 🤔 😅