Editing Orkney (section)

===20th century===
[[File:The King Pays 4-day Visit To the Home Fleet. 21 March 1943, Scapa Flow, Wearing the Uniform of An Admiral of the Fleet, the King Paid a 4-day Visit To the Home Fleet. A15259.jpg|thumb|King [[George VI]] visiting the [[Home Fleet]] based at Scapa Flow, March 1943]]
[[File:The altar art of the Italian chapel of Orkney - geograph.org.uk - 739607.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Italian Chapel]] on [[Lamb Holm]] was built and decorated by Italian prisoners of war working on the [[Churchill Barriers]].<ref name=Thom434/>]]

Orkney was the site of a [[Royal Navy]] base at [[Scapa Flow]], which played a major role in [[World War I]] and [[World War II]]. After the [[Armistice]] in 1918, the [[German High Seas Fleet]] was transferred in its entirety to Scapa Flow to await a decision on its future. [[Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow|The German sailors opened the seacocks and scuttled all the ships]]. Most ships were salvaged, but the remaining wrecks are now a favoured haunt of recreational divers. One month into World War II, a German [[U-boat]] sank the Royal Navy battleship {{HMS|Royal Oak|08|6}} in Scapa Flow. As a result, [[Churchill Barriers|barriers]] were built to close most of the access channels; these had the additional advantage of creating causeways enabling travellers to go from island to island by road instead of being obliged to rely on ferries. The causeways were constructed by Italian prisoners of war, who also constructed the ornate [[Italian Chapel]].<ref name=Thom434>Thompson (2008) pp. 434–36.</ref>

The navy base became run down after the war, eventually closing in 1957. The problem of a declining population was significant in the post-war years, though in the last decades of the 20th century, there was a recovery and life in Orkney focused on growing prosperity and the emergence of a relatively classless society.<ref>Thompson (2008) pp. 439–43.</ref> Orkney was rated as the best place to live in Scotland in both 2013 and 2014, and in 2019 the best place to live in the UK, according to the Halifax Quality of Life survey.<ref>{{cite web |last=Harrison |first=Jody |date=20 December 2014 |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/orkney-best-for-quality-of-life.114929765 |title=Orkney best for quality of life |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027204334/https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13194276.orkney-best-quality-life/ |archive-date=27 October 2021 |location=Glasgow |work=The Herald |access-date=20 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.sky.com/story/orkney-crowned-best-place-to-live-in-the-uk-in-halifax-quality-of-life-survey-11618040 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528110803/https://news.sky.com/story/orkney-crowned-best-place-to-live-in-the-uk-in-halifax-quality-of-life-survey-11618040 |title=Orkney crowned best place to live in the UK in Halifax quality of life survey |archive-date=28 May 2019 |work=Sky News |access-date=28 May 2019}}</ref>