Scapa Flow Museum set to welcome visitors again from 2 July

Scapa Flow Museum will welcome visitors again from 2 July – in time for the school holidays.

The July reopening is ahead of a formal event in September, when Sir Chris Hoy will officially open the Museum.

A final flurry of work is taking place to have as many artefacts as possible in their intended place and ready for visitors.

Orkney Islands Council Leader and Chair of the Council’s Policy and Resources Committee, James Stockan said: "This facility is very much valued by the local community in Hoy and I'm sure local families and visitors to Hoy will be pleased to hear they can visit in the summer holidays.”

The £4.4m Scapa Flow Museum refurbishment comprises an extension to the Museum and refurbishment of its historic oil pumphouse. The project has been supported by Orkney Islands Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, NatureScot and Museums Galleries Scotland.

Scapa Flow Museum is run by Orkney Islands Council. It charts Orkney’s military involvement in the First and Second World Wars and provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance. Sited at the former Lyness Royal Naval Base HMS Proserpine, on the island of Hoy, the Museum tells the story of Scapa Flow as the UK’s most important naval anchorage during both world wars.

New additions to the Museum include a Virtual Reality display drawing on the expertise of the University of St Andrews School of Computer Science and funded by CUPIDO, a collaboration between Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the University aimed at boosting cultural assets and offerings across the North of Scotland. Also in store for visitors are renewed audio visuals developed the history of Scapa Flow and its modern-day role in Orkney.

Local pupils from North Walls Community School have been closely involved as ‘Junior Curators’ in the development of offerings for their peers, including the dedicated 'education space' for visiting children, with a hand in details such as labels and voice recordings for artefacts and even instructions for interactive elements of the Museum.