Diving in Scapa Flow

In 1919 the interned German High Seas Fleet was scuttled by its own crews in Scapa Flow, the great natural harbour of Orkney, and much of it is still there — one of the finest wreck-diving sites on earth.

Three battleships lie upturned at around forty-five metres, alongside light cruisers sitting more upright and accessible, their guns, hulls and machinery draped in cold-water marine life.

Diving them is diving into history: you drop through green Scottish water onto steel a century old, vast and ghostly, and finning along a warship's hull in the gloom is a genuinely solemn, extraordinary thing.

This is serious cold-water wreck diving — depth, low light, and the North Sea's temperament — but the combination of scale, history and sheer atmosphere makes Scapa Flow a lifelong ambition for divers, and a place that more than repays the effort of getting there.

Cold, deep, atmospheric wreck diving from a hardboat, dropping onto century-old warships in green, often low-visibility water.

The battleships lie inverted at around forty-five metres — depths that call for advanced or technical training and good gas planning — while the light cruisers sit shallower and more upright, and the shallower blockships suit less experienced divers.

Expect cold water demanding a drysuit, some current, and the sober grandeur of huge steel hulls looming out of the dark. It is not tropical, easy diving; it is challenging, historic and unforgettable. Most divers do a week of two dives a day to work through the fleet.

Book a dive charter out of Stromness on Orkney — most run week-long trips working through the fleet, two dives a day, April to October when the weather allows.

Come with cold-water and drysuit experience; the battleships need advanced or technical certification and comfort at forty-five metres, though the cruisers and blockships suit competent sport divers. Reach Orkney by ferry from the Scottish mainland or by flight to Kirkwall.

Bring or hire a drysuit and appropriate deco and gas kit, and be ready for trips to shift with North Sea weather. A nitrox or technical course beforehand opens up more of the fleet.