Scapa Flow WWII: Italian Chapel & Churchill Barriers Guide

Q: Which water feature in Europe played a significant role for the British as a wartime barrier?

Scapa Flow — the vast natural harbour ringed by the Orkney Islands — was the principal anchorage of the British Royal Navy in both world wars. The 312 km² body of water acted as a defensive barrier between the United Kingdom and continental Europe, sheltering the Home Fleet from which the North Sea, the Atlantic approaches and the Arctic convoy routes were controlled.

Q: Can you still see the scuttled German ships?

Yes — three battleships ( König , Kronprinz Wilhelm , Markgraf ) and four light cruisers ( Dresden , Karlsruhe , Brummer , Cöln ) still rest on the seabed and are scheduled monuments. They are popular wreck-diving sites today ; non-divers can see remnants from the surface around the Churchill Barriers, where several smaller WWI blockships are visible at any tide.

Q: Why was Scapa Flow closed as a naval base?

Scapa Flow ceased to be an active Royal Navy base in 1957 , twelve years after the end of WWII. The decision reflected the shift in British naval strategy away from large surface fleets towards submarines and air power, the punishing cost of maintaining the remote base, and the strategic redundancy of the anchorage in the nuclear age. The shore facilities at Lyness were progressively wound down through the 1960s and finally closed in 1977. Orkney's military history is a poignant and significant layer of the islands' identity. Visiting these sites offers a tangible connection to the global conflicts that shaped the twentieth century and left an indelible mark on this unique archipelago. Pair the wartime trail with the older heritage that earned Orkney's Neolithic landscape its UNESCO listing , and a long weekend on the islands becomes a layered, unforgettable journey through five thousand years of human presence on the edge of the North Sea.

Orkney's tranquil islands hide a turbulent twentieth-century history. The vast natural harbour of Scapa Flow served as the Royal Navy's principal anchorage through two world wars — and the legacy is etched into the landscape, from the monumental Churchill Barriers and the achingly beautiful Italian Chapel to a scattering of coastal batteries that still stand watch over the Flow. This is a guide to the wartime sites you can visit today, the events that shaped them, and how to fit them into a few days on the islands.

This post focuses on Orkney's WWII military sites — the Churchill Barriers, Italian Chapel, coastal batteries, and the Scapa Flow Museum. For the broader naval story (the WWI Grand Fleet, the 1919 scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet, and visiting Scapa Flow with or without a wetsuit), the Scapa Flow guide is the natural companion read.

Churchill Barriers built 1940–45

66,000

Concrete blocks laid, 5–10 t each

1,200

Italian POWs deployed

834

Crew lost on HMS Royal Oak, 14 Oct 1939

Timeline infographic showing six decisive WWII dates for Orkney — October 1939 HMS Royal Oak sinking, 1940 Churchill Barriers begin, 1943 Italian Chapel started, May 1944 chapel consecrated, May 1945 barriers officially opened, 2022 Scapa Flow Museum reopens — with stat cards for the four barriers, 66,000 concrete blocks, 1,200 Italian POW workers, and 834 Royal Oak crew lost — Six dates that shaped Orkney's twentieth-century landscape — from the loss of HMS Royal Oak to the reopening of the Scapa Flow Museum in 2022.

The harbour at war

Scapa Flow: A Wartime Naval Fortress

Chosen for its vast, sheltered anchorage, Scapa Flow served as the main base for the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet in WWI and the Home Fleet in WWII. Its strategic location controlled access to the North Atlantic, vital for blockading Germany and protecting Arctic convoys.

WWI and the German Fleet scuttling: Initially poorly defended, Scapa Flow was rapidly fortified during WWI. After the war, 74 ships of the defeated German High Seas Fleet were interned here. On 21 June 1919, under secret orders from Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter to prevent them falling into British hands, the crews scuttled 52 warships. This dramatic act — the largest single loss of naval vessels in history — left a ghostly underwater fleet, parts of which are still visible or accessible to divers today.

WWII and HMS Royal Oak: The perceived impregnability of Scapa Flow was shattered early in WWII. On 14 October 1939, German U-boat U-47, commanded by Günther Prien, slipped through the eastern defences and torpedoed the battleship HMS Royal Oak at anchor. The ship rolled and sank in 13 minutes, with the loss of 834 lives — 134 of them under the age of 18. It remains one of the Royal Navy's worst single-ship losses of the war. The site is a designated war grave; a green buoy on the surface marks the wreck and the Royal Navy still places an ensign there every year on the anniversary.

The torpedo that sank HMS Royal Oak rewrote Orkney's geography. Within days, Churchill ordered the eastern channels sealed for good — and four causeways, two POW camps and a fresco-painted chapel followed.

After the disaster

How HMS Royal Oak Changed Scapa Flow's Defences

The loss of Royal Oak was a defensive catastrophe — Scapa Flow was supposed to be the safest anchorage in the British Isles, and a U-boat had penetrated it in the first weeks of the war. Within a fortnight Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, had ordered the permanent closure of the four eastern channels into the Flow. The temporary defences in place at the time of the attack — a line of WWI-era blockships, scuttled hulks meant to physically obstruct the channels — had clearly failed. U-47 had threaded between them on a high tide.

Churchill's directive set in motion the largest civil engineering project ever undertaken in Orkney. The Admiralty's solution was permanent, brutal and effective: four solid causeways of rock and concrete blocks, sealing the eastern approaches from Mainland to South Ronaldsay. They became known as the Churchill Barriers, and they remain the most visible legacy of the war on Orkney to this day.

Scapa Flow also gained a thickened ring of coastal batteries, anti-aircraft positions, observation posts and a system of anti-submarine booms across the surviving entrances at Hoxa Sound and Switha Sound. Some of those defences still stand on the clifftops, as you'll see further down.

Engineering against the odds

The Churchill Barriers: Four Causeways That Changed Orkney

Construction began in 1940 on four massive causeways to block the eastern channels into Scapa Flow. This immense feat of engineering involved:

Laying 66,000 huge concrete blocks (5 and 10 tonnes each) onto rubble foundations sunk to the seabed.
Using over 250,000 tonnes of rock quarried locally and filling wire 'gabion' baskets.
Employing around 2,000 workers in total, including, controversially, more than 1,200 Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa.

Rusting WWI blockship half-sunk in the turquoise water beside Churchill Barrier No. 3 on Orkney, with the concrete causeway and a single estate car visible on the right and the low green coast of Burray in the distance under bright summer cumulus — The Churchill Barriers replaced a failed line of scuttled blockships — several of which still lie rusting beside the causeways today, half-submerged in the channels they once defended.

The POWs, housed in Camp 60 on Lamb Holm and Camp 34 on Burray, initially protested working on military defences under the Geneva Convention, but later agreed under revised terms that classified the project as 'civilian causeway construction'. Completed in 1944 and officially opened in May 1945, the Barriers permanently linked Mainland, Lamb Holm, Glimps Holm, Burray and South Ronaldsay. They transformed inter-island transport and remain in daily use — a single-track A961 road runs across all four, and they are the only practical route by car to the Italian Chapel.

A miracle of faith and art

The Italian Chapel: Two Nissen Huts and a Renaissance Fresco

One of the most moving legacies of the Churchill Barriers project is the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm. Built by POWs from Camp 60 between 1943 and 1944, it stands as a testament to human spirit and creativity in adversity. Using two corrugated Nissen huts joined end to end, scrap materials, beaten-out bully-beef tins and concrete, the prisoners, led by artist Domenico Chiocchetti, transformed the basic structure into a beautiful place of worship.

Chiocchetti painted the interior frescoes, including the intricate altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child, based on a small painting by Nicolo Barabino that Chiocchetti had carried with him as a prayer card through the war. Other prisoners crafted the concrete facade, the wrought-iron rood screen (hammered out of scrap metal), and the holy water stoup. Saved from demolition after the war by local Orcadians, the chapel was restored in the 1960s with Chiocchetti returning in person to assist, and remains a cherished symbol of peace, reconciliation and faith. It receives well over 100,000 visitors a year and is one of the most-visited heritage sites in Scotland.

Close-up interior of the Italian Chapel altarpiece on Lamb Holm Orkney — Domenico Chiocchetti's painted fresco of the Madonna and Child in renaissance pinks and blues with a gold halo above the simple concrete altar, with a wrought-iron candle stand and lit votive candle in soft mixed daylight — Domenico Chiocchetti painted the altarpiece using a small prayer card he had carried since enlistment — the original painting is by Nicolo Barabino.

Practical details

Visiting the Italian Chapel: Tickets, Opening Times and How to Get There

Where

Lamb Holm, between Churchill Barriers 1 & 2

15 minutes' drive south of Kirkwall on the A961.

Admission

£4 adult / £3 concession (2026)

Children under 16 free. Cash or contactless at the door.

Opening

Daily 09:00 – dusk

Open year-round; longer hours in summer. Closed only for occasional services.

Time needed

30 – 45 minutes

Combine with Hoxa Head or Tomb of the Eagles further south.

The chapel is entirely run by a small charity, the Italian Chapel Preservation Committee, and the modest admission fee is what keeps the frescoes lit, heated and conserved. There is a small gravel car park, an interpretation board outside, and a tiny gift counter just inside the door. Photography is permitted; flash is not. Tour buses can fill the chapel quickly between 10:30 and 14:00 in July and August — the calmest time is the first hour after opening or the last hour before dusk. The most rewarding way to fit it into a day is to combine it with a guided Scapa Flow heritage tour that covers the barriers, the chapel and one of the gun batteries in a single half-day.

Guarding the Flow

Coastal Defences and Gun Batteries

Beyond the Barriers, an extensive network of coastal batteries and lookout posts guarded Scapa Flow. The best preserved sites are open to the public, usually for free, and reward a walk along the clifftops:

Ness Battery (Stromness): Just west of Stromness, this is the best-presented of the wartime gunneries. Two restored 6-inch gun emplacements, searchlight positions, accommodation huts and a hand-painted mural inside the Mess Hut. Guided tours run on selected days April–October — check the Orkney.com events calendar.
Hoxa Head (South Ronaldsay): Overlooking the southern entrance to Scapa Flow (Hoxa Sound), this battery retains its twin 6-inch gun emplacements and command post — considered one of the best-preserved WWII batteries in the UK. A waymarked 5 km loop walk from Hoxa Bay takes in the whole site.
Stanger Head (Flotta): Less visited because Flotta requires a ferry from Houton, but the WWII observation posts and gun positions here are dramatic, set on the cliff edge overlooking the main southern approach.
Lyness (Hoy): The site of the main Royal Navy shore base in both wars — the surviving pumphouse and oil tank are now the Scapa Flow Museum (see below).

Crumbling concrete WWII coastal gun emplacement at Hoxa Head on South Ronaldsay Orkney — circular gun pit weathered to pale grey with patches of orange lichen, rusting iron mounting bolts in the centre, set in green clifftop turf overlooking the flat steel-blue sea of Hoxa Sound with the dark hills of Hoy on the horizon and a small ferry crossing — The 6-inch gun pit at Hoxa Head, South Ronaldsay — one of two emplacements that guarded the southern entrance to Scapa Flow.

Museums & memorials

Where to Learn the Full Story

Several sites help interpret Orkney's wartime story in depth:

Scapa Flow Museum (Lyness, Hoy): The flagship museum, accessible by ferry from Houton (35 minutes). After a major refurbishment it reopened in 2022 with a much-expanded, fully accessible gallery housed in the original WWII naval pumphouse and oil tank. The collection covers both world wars in depth — artefacts from the German fleet, oral histories, the salvaged figurehead from HMS Royal Oak, and a quietly devastating section on the lost crews. Allow at least 2 hours, ideally a half-day so you also have time for the harbour walk.
Orkney Museum (Kirkwall): Free to enter, on Broad Street opposite St Magnus Cathedral. The WWII gallery is small but high-quality and includes the bell of HMS Royal Oak, recovered in 2008.
Kitchener Memorial (Marwick Head): A prominent clifftop tower commemorating the loss of Lord Kitchener and 736 men when HMS Hampshire struck a mine off Marwick Head in WWI (June 1916). A separate memorial wall added in 2016 lists every name.
Fossil & Heritage Centre (Burray): A small private museum with the best dedicated display on the construction of the Churchill Barriers — models, original tools, photographs of the Italian POW camps.

The Scapa Flow Museum at Lyness on the Isle of Hoy Orkney — the black-painted wooden former WWII Royal Navy fuel oil pumphouse with tall white-rimmed windows and pitched corrugated roof beside an enormous black cylindrical oil tank, modern blue museum signage in the foreground, with the calm grey-blue water of Scapa Flow beyond under bright summer cumulus — The Scapa Flow Museum at Lyness, Hoy — housed in the original WWII fuel pumphouse, reopened in 2022 after a major refurbishment.

Planning the trip

Visiting the Sites — Practical Notes

By car: The A961 carries you across all four Churchill Barriers in around 25 minutes from Kirkwall, with the sea on both sides and rusting blockships visible in the channels. This is the only practical way to combine the Italian Chapel, Burray's Fossil & Heritage Centre, and Hoxa Head in a single day.
By ferry: Orkney Ferries operate the daily Houton–Lyness service for the Scapa Flow Museum (35 minutes each way). Book the car deck a day or two ahead in July–August.
Guided tours: A private historic Orkney tour with a native islander is the most efficient way to cover the military sites — the driver-guide threads in stories you simply will not get from interpretation boards.
Walking and accessibility: The Italian Chapel is fully accessible. Hoxa Head and Ness Battery involve uneven clifftop paths and grass; sensible footwear, please. Lyness museum is fully accessible inside.
Where to stay: Most visitors base themselves in Kirkwall for convenience, but St Margaret's Hope makes a quieter southern base if you want to be a 10-minute drive from the Italian Chapel and Hoxa Head.

Frequently asked

Frequently Asked Questions

Which water feature in Europe played a significant role for the British as a wartime barrier?

Scapa Flow — the vast natural harbour ringed by the Orkney Islands — was the principal anchorage of the British Royal Navy in both world wars. The 312 km² body of water acted as a defensive barrier between the United Kingdom and continental Europe, sheltering the Home Fleet from which the North Sea, the Atlantic approaches and the Arctic convoy routes were controlled.

Can you still see the scuttled German ships?

Yes — three battleships (König, Kronprinz Wilhelm, Markgraf) and four light cruisers (Dresden, Karlsruhe, Brummer, Cöln) still rest on the seabed and are scheduled monuments. They are popular wreck-diving sites today; non-divers can see remnants from the surface around the Churchill Barriers, where several smaller WWI blockships are visible at any tide.

Why is the Italian Chapel so famous?

It's the artistry — the chapel was built and decorated by enemy prisoners from two corrugated huts and scrap, and the painted interior is extraordinary. Beyond that, it has become a powerful international symbol of reconciliation; descendants of the Italian POWs still travel to Orkney every year, and a formal twinning exists between Orkney and the Italian commune of Moena, Chiocchetti's home town.

Was Orkney bombed in WWII?

Yes — Scapa Flow and the surrounding islands were targeted by Luftwaffe raids, particularly in early 1940 in retaliation for the British raid on Wilhelmshaven. The first civilian killed by a German bomb on British soil in WWII, James Isbister, died at Brig o' Waithe near Stromness on 16 March 1940.

Is the Scapa Flow Museum open?

Yes — the museum reopened in 2022 after a major refurbishment and runs year-round, with longer summer hours. Always check the official Scapa Flow Museum website for current opening times and ferry connections before travelling.

Why was Scapa Flow closed as a naval base?

Scapa Flow ceased to be an active Royal Navy base in 1957, twelve years after the end of WWII. The decision reflected the shift in British naval strategy away from large surface fleets towards submarines and air power, the punishing cost of maintaining the remote base, and the strategic redundancy of the anchorage in the nuclear age. The shore facilities at Lyness were progressively wound down through the 1960s and finally closed in 1977.

Orkney's military history is a poignant and significant layer of the islands' identity. Visiting these sites offers a tangible connection to the global conflicts that shaped the twentieth century and left an indelible mark on this unique archipelago. Pair the wartime trail with the older heritage that earned Orkney's Neolithic landscape its UNESCO listing, and a long weekend on the islands becomes a layered, unforgettable journey through five thousand years of human presence on the edge of the North Sea.