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South Isles
 The South Isles form the western side of Scapa Flow. Orkney's second largest island, Hoy dominates the group and has a number of smaller islands in its shelter. Graemsay is in the middle of Hoy Sound, while Flotta shelters the southern side of Scapa Flow. The little uninhabited islands of Cava, Fara, Rysa Little and Switha cluster around Flotta.
With its easy access from Stromness and Houton and dramatic hills and cliffs, Hoy is the most visited, but Flotta and Graemsay present very different aspects of Orkney and are also very much worth a visit.
Out on the isles be prepared to wave a greeting to almost everyone you meet. It's compulsory. And passing the time of day by the roadside or along the shore track is expected. The pace is slower, the breathing is easier and everything begins to make sense once more.
Emphasising their individuality, every parish in Orkney, including the islands, has an ancient nickname which, over the years, has become very much a local identification tag.
Now as you voyage around our island chain, you have the opportunity to share these labels, to become an honorary Limpet or Gruillie Belkie.
For the record these odd aliases for the South Isles are Fleuks (Flotta); Hawks (Hoy) and Gosling (Graemsay).
Reasons for each island being so named are lost in the mists of time. They may simply be island totems but Orkney folklorist Tom Muir points to a local tradition that these island emblems were perhaps the pooled food supplies brought by islanders working on the construction of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.
More recently, during World War II, the island labels were used to confuse the enemy when they were included in sailings bills to identify destinations.
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