Cava 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 107 hectare (0.413129309694012 sq mi) in extent and rises to 38 metres (125 ft) 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. Cava is unusual in that it includes a small peninsula joined to the main body of the island by a narrow isthmus

Isthmus

An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterforms on either side.Canals are often built through isthmuses where they may be particularly advantageous to create a shortcut for marine transportation...

, which is in turn called 'Calf of Cava'.

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...

. Nearby are the islets of Rysa Little

Rysa Little

Rysa Little is an uninhabited island in the Orkney archipelago in Scotland. It is approximately 32 hectares in extent and rises to 20 metres above sea level....

 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:...

 and the skerry

Skerry

A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low sea stack....

 Barrel of Butter. To the south of Cava, between Fara and Rysa Little 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.

In the eighteenth century a notorious Orkney pirate, John Gow

John Gow

John Gow was a notorious pirate whose short career was immortalized by Charles Johnson in A General History of the Pyrates. Little is known of his life, except from an account by Daniel Defoe, which is often considered unreliable, the report on his execution, and an account by Mr...

, raided the island and took away three young women. However, in common with a number of the smaller South Isles of Orkney, Cava lost its resident population during the course of the twentieth century. There is still a habitable building on the island - Cava Lodge. There are no good anchorages in the vicinity.

See also

• Calf of Eday
  Calf of Eday
  The Calf of Eday is an island in Orkney, Scotland, lying north east of Eday."Calf" is a name usually given to a small island alongside a larger one, e.g...
  
  
• Calf of Man
  Calf of Man
  Calf of Man, sometimes known as the Calf of Mann , is a island , off the southwest coast of the Isle of Man. It is separated from the Isle of Man by a narrow stretch of water called the Calf Sound. Like the nearby rocky islets of Chicken Rock and Kitterland, it is part of the parish of Rushen. It...
  
  
• Calf of Flotta
  Flotta
  Flotta is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying in Scapa Flow. The island is known for its large oil terminal and is linked by Orkney Ferries to Houton on the Orkney Mainland and Lyness and Longhope on Hoy....
  
  
• List of Orkney islands