Hoy is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring 143 square kilometres (55 sq mi) – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, the Ayre, links the island to the smaller South Walls; the two islands are treated as one entity by the UK census. Hoy is also the name of a hamlet in the northwest of the island.
St Mary's is the largest and most populous island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwest coast of Cornwall in England, United Kingdom.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways.
Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts.
Flotta is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying in Scapa Flow. The island is known for its large oil terminal and is linked by Orkney Ferries to Houton on the Orkney Mainland, Lyness on Hoy and Longhope on South Walls. The island has a population of 80.
RNLB Thomas McCunn is a 45ft 6in Watson-class lifeboat stationed at Longhope in Orkney, Scotland, from January 1933 until April 1962. During which time she was launched on service 101 times and saved 308 lives. After Thomas McCunn left Longhope she was placed into the reserve fleet for ten years before being sold and used as a pleasure boat. In 2000 she was bought by Longhope Lifeboat Museum. The lifeboat is now at the centre of a display in the old slipway at Brims and is still launched on special occasions.
Skarfskerry is a settlement located in the far northern county Caithness on a small peninsula northeast of Thurso off the A836 in Scotland. It is the most northerly settlement in Great Britain. The name comes from the Old Norse for "cormorants' rock". Historically, it belonged to the Parish of Dunnet, along with Brough.
Jersey is a heavily fortified island with coastal fortifications that date to the English Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars, and Nazi Germany's occupation of the Channel Islands. The fortifications include castles, forts, towers, Martello towers, artillery batteries, and seawalls. Not infrequently, fortifications from one period are built on the site of earlier fortifications, or very near them, geography having remained the same even when firepower increased.
Anthony Robert Trickett MBE DL was a Scottish doctor and Lord Lieutenant of Orkney.
South Walls is a tidal island or peninsula at the southern end of Hoy in Orkney, Scotland. It is connected to the main body of Hoy, and to the district of North Walls, by a thin neck of land known as the Ayre. Its largest settlement is Longhope, which lies on a long natural harbour of the same name. Both North and South Walls belong to the civil parish of Walls and Flotta.
Houton is a settlement 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Stromness on the island of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. The settlement is within the parish of Orphir, and is situated on a minor road off the A964.
Lyness is a village on the east coast of the island of Hoy, Orkney, Scotland. The village is within the parish of Walls and Flotta, and is situated at the junction of the B9047 and B9048.
Brims is a village at the southern point of the island of Hoy, in Orkney, Scotland. The settlement is within the parish of Walls and Flotta. The RNLI lifeboat Thomas McCunn is on display at the Longhope Lifeboat Museum in Brims which was the Longhope Lifeboat Station until 2003.
Hackness Martello Tower and Battery is a former British Army barracks and currently a museum located on the island of South Walls, in Orkney, Scotland.
The Tally Toor is the local name for a Martello tower in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of Scotland's three Martello towers, the other two being at Hackness and Crockness in Orkney. Originally built offshore on a rocky outcrop called the Mussel Cape Rocks, the land around it was subsequently reclaimed, and the building now lies, half-buried, in an industrial area on the eastern breakwater of Leith Docks.
Crockness Martello Tower is a Martello Tower on Hoy, Orkney, Scotland. It was built during the Napoleonic Wars, at the same time as the Martello Tower at Hackness. It is on the north side of Longhope Sound to the north of Crock Ness point and the hamlet of Crockness, while Hackness is on the south side of the Sound. Crockness Martello Tower is currently not open to the public.
The Cantick Head Lighthouse is an active 19th century lighthouse on the Scottish island of South Walls in the Orkney Islands. It is located at the end of Cantick Head, a long peninsula on the south-eastern coast of South Walls that overlooks the Pentland Firth and the Sound of Hoxa, which forms the southern entry to the natural harbour of Scapa Flow.
Hoy and West Mainland is a national scenic area (NSA) covering parts of the islands of Hoy and Mainland in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, as well as parts of the surrounding sea. It is one of 40 such areas in Scotland, which are defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection by restricting certain forms of development. The Hoy and West Mainland NSA covers 24,407 ha in total, consisting of 16,479 ha of land with a further 7928 ha being marine.
Longhope Lifeboat Museum is a museum at Brims on the island of Hoy in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. The museum's main exhibit is the former lifeboat Thomas McCunn, the lifeboat that served the islands of Hoy and South Walls between 1933 and 1962.
Longhope Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations at Longhope on the island of South Walls, in Orkney, Scotland. It opened in 1874 and since 2004 has operated a Tamar-class lifeboat. In 1969 its lifeboat and crew of eight were lost during a rescue mission.
