Hoy

The dramatic coastline of Hoy is what usually greets visitors to the Orkney Islands. It has extremes of many kinds: some of the highest cliffs in Britain at St John's Head; the impressive and famous sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy[?]; some of the most northerly woodland in Britain; the remote possiblity that Arctic Char[?] survive in Heldale Water and the most northerly Martello Towers[?], which were never used in combat.

The main naval base for Scapa Flow in both the First and Second World Wars was situated at Lyness in the south-east of the island. Some rather incongruous art deco structures nearby date from this period.

An unusual rock-cut tomb, The Dwarfie Stane, lies in a valley at the west of the island. It is unique in northern Europe, bearing similarity to Neolithic or Bronze Age tombs around the Mediterranean.

The even stranger Martello Towers[?] were built to defend the area during the Napoleonic War[?].