Rysa Little is an uninhabited island in the Orkney archipelago in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It is approximately 32 hectares in extent and rises to 20 metres (66 feet) above sea level.

It is situated in the Scapa Flow

Scapa Flow

right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...

 just offshore from the much larger island of Hoy

Hoy

Hoy is an island in Orkney, Scotland. With an area of it is the second largest in the archipelago after the Mainland. It is connected by a causeway called The Ayre to South Walls...

 and nearby is the islet of Cava

Cava, Orkney

Cava is an uninhabited island in the Orkney archipelago in Scotland. It is in extent and rises to above sea level. The literal meaning of the name is 'calf island', a terminology often used to designate a small island near to a larger one...

. Between Rysa Little and Fara

Fara, Orkney

Fara is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying in Scapa Flow between the islands of Flotta and Hoy. It has been uninhabited since the 1960s.-Footnotes:...

 lies Gutter Sound

Gutter Sound

Gutter Sound is an inlet of the vast anchorage of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. Gutter Sound was the site of the mass-scuttling of the interned German Imperial High Seas Fleet in 1919.-Scuttling of the fleet:...

, the scene of the mass-scuttling

Scuttling

Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...

 of the interned German Imperial

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 High Seas Fleet

High Seas Fleet

The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...

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.

Footnotes