Rysa Little, commonly referred to as Rysa, is an uninhabited island in the

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

archipelago in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It is approximately in area, and rises to

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. It is situated in the

Scapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and ...

just offshore from the much larger island of

Hoy Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the two ...

and nearby is the islet of Cava. Between Rysa Little and Fara lies

Gutter Sound Gutter Sound is a location in Orkney, Scotland, part of the vast anchorage of Scapa Flow. It lies to the west of the main harbour between the internal islands of Cava and Fara, and the large outer island of Hoy. Gutter Sound was the one of th ...

, the scene of the mass-

scuttling Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self destruct, self-destruction to prevent the s ...

of the interned German Imperial

High Seas Fleet The High Seas Fleet (''Hochseeflotte'') was the battle fleet of the German Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet (''Heimatflotte'') was renamed as the High Seas ...

in 1919. Many of the smaller South Isles of Orkney lost their resident populations during the course of the twentieth century, but Rysa Little has not been inhabited since earlier times.Wenham, Sheena, ''The South Isles'' in Omand, Donald (ed.) (2003) ''The Orkney Book''. Edinburgh, Birlinn. Page 208.

Footnotes

Uninhabited islands of Orkney {{Orkney-geo-stub

See also

Footnotes