Diving is very popular in the area due to it’s war links and the many boats that were sunk there. The clear waters and wrecks provide the divers with history and varied marine life.
Blockships were purposefully sunk around Scapa to form blockades to prevent German submarines from infiltrating the area during wartime – these are now visible to the many who now dive the area.
In addition a whole German fleet was scuppered in 1919, and lies at various depths throughout Scapa Flow. Wrecks that the many divers explore include the Brummer and Dresden 2.
Divers will find the shallower wrecks festooned with plumrose anemones, sponges and kelp – visited by the occasional brightly coloured wrasse.
Indeed the area is so popular with diving that there is talk amongst the Scapa Skippers of deliberately sinking a decommissioned naval vessel (in the style of the Syclla in Cornwall) to form a new artificial wreck to dive.
Dive trips can be organised on a liveaboard basis (i.e. living on a boat for the duration of your stay), or by staying in a guesthouse or bed and breakfast and chartering a dive boat on a daily basis. The In Depth Scuba Training Dive Club stayed on a self catering basis at the Sands Hotel and found the apartments well equipped, comfy, clean and more importantly close to all the diving action on offer. They used a dive boat called the Crusader (a 57 tonne trawler) to dive from and reported that the skipper, Dave. and his ‘missus’ couldn’t do enough for them.
For those on diveboats who are keen on their fish suppers, you can catch local ling and prise scallops off sea walls to be grilled freshly on the boat before cruising gently into harbour.
LGTs KT – wishing she’d donned her dive kit and joined In Depth on their excursion to Scapa Flow!! | 
