Located approximately 10 miles off Scotland’s northern coastline, Orkney is a wild and rugged archipelago of islands that are as breath-taking as they are remote. Travelling to Orkney is relatively easy with direct flights to and from North America available from Glasgow and Edinburgh. By far the easiest route is via Aberdeen with a ferry crossing to Kirkwall, the capital settlement on the Orkney Islands. From there you can hire a car or simply jump on a bus for the short trip to Stromness. Alternatively, many visitors choose to embark from Scrabster – Scotland’s most northerly mainland port. The ferry from Scrabster will deposit you directly onto the quayside in Stromness where Scapa’s many charter boats operate from.

Stromness is a picturesque little fishing village that is now home to a fleet of dive boats and liveaboards that serve the never-ending supply of divers seeking to satisfy their rust for lust. Most of the boats that work Scapa Flow tend to be converted fishing trawlers but our base for the week was to be the most recent arrival in Stromness – the MV Huskyan. Built from the ground up for the sole purpose of diving, Huskyan is a very solid metal-hulled dive boat that boasts every conceivable gadget and mod-con a diver could wish for. From its large open rear deck with ample kitting up space and wide divers lift to the comfort of its galley complete with flat screen TVs and heated changing area, you can’t help but feel just a little bit spoilt.

Perhaps Huskyan’s greatest asset, though, is her skipper, Emily Turton. If Emily’s cooking doesn’t impress you – the crumble cakes with vanilla cream are to die for – her encyclopaedic knowledge of the wrecks and their history will leave you in no doubt that Emily knows her stuff. Before each dive, Emily took us through the history of each wreck – from it’s contribution to the German war effort through to its sinking and the effects of later salvage operations – and, of course, the features worth looking out for on our dives. Dive briefs onboard Huskyan are quite a high tech affair with Emily digitally scribbling over 3D multibeam models of the wrecks shown on two large flat screen monitors.

Let’s be honest – it’s the big guns that attract divers to Scapa Flow and the Karlsruhe has more than her fair share. That’s not to say that fans of marine wildlife will be disappointed – the Karlsruhe is also one of the prettiest dives in Scapa Flow with much of her superstructure covered in beautiful plumose anemones and a carpet of brittle starfish. There’s a lot of life to be seen in and around the wrecks too – we were lucky enough to be ‘buzzed’ by a playful seal on at least one of our dives and large shoals of fish sweep past you at every turn.

Adding to our tally of High Seas wrecks, our next dive was on the SMS Cöln which, like the Karlsruhe, has suffered from extensive salvage work near her stern. Like her sister ships, the Cöln has plenty to offer but two features you should not miss are her range finder (minus the optics – the Germans didn’t want these falling into British hands so they were removed before her internment) and a beautiful brass torpedo tube that still remains in place next to a 5.9-inch deck gun. Quite how this solid lump of brass was overlooked during salvage operations remains one of the great mysteries of Scapa Flow!

If you get the chance, make sure you take in at least one dive on the smallest of the seven wrecks – the German minelayer, SMS Brummer. Lighter in construction, she’s fared considerably worse than the rest of the fleet with large sections of inner hull exposed to the outside world. Nowhere is this more evident than her bow – the upper sections of hull are all but gone, leaving nothing more than a sweeping scythe-like framework.

Still in surprisingly good condition is a large search light that now lies broken open on the seabed. Unique to the Brummer, the fragile bronze blades of the search light's iris should not be missed although care must be taken not to touch them – the whole structure really is that fragile! Look but do not touch or you'll have a very angry skipper to answer to.

The deepest of the three battleships is the SMS Markgraf which – like its fellow König-class battleships – lies upside down at a maximum depth of 148ft (45m). She is probably the only one of the seven high seas fleet wrecks that is beyond the range of single-cylinder recreational divers – I’d certainly recommend a twinset or closed circuit rebreather to dive her safely. As she is completely upside down, most divers concentrate on taking in the shear scale of her hull which really hits home when you swim between her massive twin rudders that stand almost 13ft (4m) proud of the upturned hull!

If you get the chance of a second dive on the Markgraf, I’d highly recommend taking in her stunning bow too – dropping down to the seabed at 148ft (45m) and looking straight up along the vertical line of her bow really gives you an idea of the shear scale of this sleeping behemoth. For divers happy to rack up some deco, there’s plenty to see along the seabed including casemate guns and portholes to the officer’s accommodation.

With six solid days of diving complete and all seven of the German High Seas fleet wrecks added to my log book, my visit to the Orkney Islands was over. Looking back, it’s safe to say that Scapa Flow isn’t for everyone – you really do need to be comfortable diving in temperate waters so a drysuit is a must. That said, the diving isn’t difficult – most of the German fleet are well within recreational diving limits and can safely be dived on a single cylinder. A twinset or rebreather will certainly help to maximise your time on the wrecks – especially if you’re comfortable with a little deco – but far from essential. When the weather is playing ball, the conditions within Scapa Flow are relatively benign too with surprisingly good visibility and very little current to contend with.

Once your diving is complete, I’d highly recommend that you stay on for a few extra days to explore Orkney's topside attractions. Orkney has a rare to find, unspoilt quality – it's wild and untamed scenery is breathtakingly beautiful and is home to some of the oldest recorded Neolithic settlements and standing stones that pre-date Stone Henge by thousands of years.

Where ever you venture on Orkney, there are signs of the island's rich and diverse history – from the ornately painted Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm to the Kitchener Memorial at Marwick Head which looks out across the stormy seas to the last resting place of the ill-fated HMS Hampshire, Orkney is a rugged gem that will leave a lasting impression on you for many years to come.