FLOTTA — ORKNEY’S FLAT ISLE
The often overlooked island of Flotta is a friendly place with much history and bird life. Arriving in Flotta you can’t miss the Repsol Oil Terminal, which is the second largest in the country, and the old Naval Cinema which was built to entertain the troops stationed on the island during the Second World War. Surrounding what’s left of the building is the Flotta “forest,” a plantation of spruce trees.
The Flotta trail, which circles most of the island, will take you past many wartime sites, including the cinema, the Port War Signal Station, Stanger Head and Buchanan Battery.
The beautiful and dramatic scenery and wartime buildings are well worth a visit, while the island’s heritage centre is one of the best of its kind and should not be missed.
When going around the island, you will also see the penguin statues that watch over Rotten Gutter and the cats at the gateway to the “stanning stane.”
The Cletts, small sea stacks near Stanger Head, and the quarries are jewels to discover, especially when they have puffins and razorbills nesting. The quarries are also home to kestrels. Often seen and heard are snipe, twite, skylarks, short-eared owls and hen harriers, as well as many more nesting birds. Most days, if you’re in the right place at the right time, you can see orcas, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks.
Flotta has self-catering accommodation, and the community centre is home to the summer café during the school holidays.
On clear nights, during the winter, the island is a superb place to see the Northern Lights.