“In Scotland, when people congregate, they tend to argue and discuss and reason; in Orkney, they tell stories.”

— George Mackay Brown

Kirkwall, Orkney Mainland

Remember in the last post when we were at Skara Brae and I complained about it being cold?

That was Friday. This was Saturday (Aug 5):

St Magnus Cathedral

St Magnus Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Scotland, and the most northerly cathedral in the UK.

It was built from red and yellow sandstone.

I enjoyed all the little peaks and windows around the spire. Though not open to the public, the cathedral has its own dungeon.
Over the years, St Magnus has been part of the Roman Catholic Church, the Norwegian Church, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian).
Today, however, it is not owned by a church, but by the burgh of Kirkwall. As such, it is now truly “the people’s church.”

The many, amazing doors of St Magnus Cathedral

The Nave:

The nave of St Magnus Cathedral reminded me of Gloucester Cathedral (from our Ghosts of You post). By comparison to their “newer” brethren, these are the only two cathedrals we visited that had a Norman Nave with Romanesque (round) pillars. Construction on both cathedrals began within 48 years of one another.

On the opposite side there is a rhyming inscription dedicated to Robert Nicolson. The inscription explains that his body lies beneath the board and that he left a wife and children.

The choir was filled with amazing carvings.

Much like Ripon Cathedral and the carvings that inspired Lewis Carroll to pen Alice in Wonderland (from our Yorkshire in Repose post), the St Magnus Cathedral choir was filled with delightful and fanciful carvings.

The bones of **St Magnus** are interred inside this pillar. This is briefly how he became a saint, why the cathedral was built, and how the town got its name:

Håkon, the cousin of the King of Norway, and Magnus ruled amicably as joint Earls of Orkney from 1105 to 1114. Their followers fell out in 1116 (or 1117), and the two sides met at a “thing” (assembly) on Orkney Mainland, ready to do battle. Peace was negotiated and the Earls arranged to meet each other on the small island of Eqilsay, each bringing only two ships.

Magnus arrived with his two ships, but then Håkon treacherously turned up with eight ships. Magnus was captured and offered to go into exile or prison, but an assembly of chieftains insisted that one earl must die. Håkon's standard bearer refused to execute Magnus, and an angry Håkon made his cook Lifolf kill Magnus by striking him on the head with an axe.

Years later, Magnus’ sister married the king of Norway and their son Rögnvald was granted the Orkney earldom in 1129. Earl Rögnvald eventually took a fleet to Orkney, but the islanders resisted him until he promised the islanders to "build a stone minster more magnificent than any in Orkney,” and have it dedicated to his uncle the holy Earl Magnus.

In 1135, Magnus was canonized, with April 16 becoming St Magnus' day. His remains were exhumed and moved east to the small settlement known as Kirkjuvágr, meaning "church bay," now Kirkwall.

Rögnvald was canonized in 1192 and his bones interred within pillar at the opposite aisle.

In August 1987, on 850th anniversary of the foundation of the cathedral, the King of Norway gave to Her Majesty The Queen Mother the tapestry hanging above.

Isn’t it fascinating that the connection formed between two nations still exists nearly a millennium later?

Memorial to the 833 men of **HMS Royal Oak** who lost their lives when their ship was sunk in Scapa Bay, Orkney by a German submarine U-47 on October 14, 1939.

The original town cross removed from Broad Street in 1954.

The pulpit canopy (sounding board) and the choir.

South transept and the South Transept Rose window.

Italian Chapel

At some point later in our planning process, we discovered that the ferry from Orkney to Shetland is an overnight transit. The NorthLink ferry did not leave port until 11:45 pm on Sunday night.

We woke on Sunday morning (Aug 6) and left the noisy Ivy House behind, with a plan for how we would while away a very long day—beginning with a visit to the Italian Chapel.

The Italian Chapel is the only building that remains of Camp 60, a WW-II prisoner of war (POW) camp. From January 1942 until spring 1945, the camp housed Italian POWs.
Here is the Italian Chapel on the map, with Scapa Flow to the west.

Most of these prisoners were brought in to assist contractors with the construction of causeways, later known as the **Churchill Barriers**, to block off the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow where the British Fleet often lay at anchor.

You may recall from St Magnus Cathedral the memorial to the 833 men who died in late 1939 when their battleship was struck nearby by a German submarine.

Britain had sunk captured German WW-I ships to block most entrances to Scapa Flow, and so they thought it was a safe harbor. The destruction of HMS Royal Oak proved otherwise.

(There is another fascinating story about the near destruction of the British Fleet in Scapa Flow when we visit the Sumburgh Head Lighthouse in Shetland in our next post!)

The Italian prisoners, thousands of miles from their homeland, deeply felt the need for a place of worship. In September 1943 the camp commandant, make available to the prisoners two Nissen huts. They were placed end to end and were originally intended to serve as a school and a church.

Domenico Chiocchetti, an artist, had originally constructed a concrete statue of St George Slaying the Dragon which presided over the camp "square." He gathered together a team of craftsmen and began work on a sanctuary.

As Chiocchetti worked, the imagination needed to transform the drab huts into a magnificent place of worship inspired his fellow Italians.
As one area of the hut was completed, the need to design further works of art became necessary.
Completed sections made the rest of the hut uninviting and the workers decided to beautify the whole interior.

Above the altar is Chiöcchetti's masterpiece. It is based on Nicolo Barabino's Madonna of the Olives from a small picture given by his mother to Domenico which he carried with him throughout the war.

A photo taken in 1944 with the two men chiefly responsible for its construction: Signor Domenico Chiöcchetti on the left and Signor Giuseppe Palumbi on the right, who was responsible for the wrought iron work.

The **“Churchill Barrier,”** which also formed a land bridge between Mainland and the tiny island of Lamb Holm, where the Italian Chapel is located. The bridge is now considered highway A961.

Brian and Peter

On the way to the Italian Chapel, Amanda spotted two massive pigs.
As we drove back into Kirkwall, we stopped to check them out. A sign on the fence said they were “Hungarian sheep pigs.”
Since he didn’t self-identify, and it’s rude to ask, I don’t know if this is Brian or Peter.

Highland Park Distillery

Highland Park is a famous Scottish whisky. Interestingly, it’s name does not refer to the Scottish Highlands, but rather to the fact that the distillery was founded in an area of Kirkwall called “High Park,” distinguished from lower areas nearer the harbor.

Highland Park uses the local peat, which contains a higher proportion of heather than many other peats.

Highland Park is one of only a handful of distilleries where the expensive and physically exhausting custom of turning malt by hand still takes place.

Among other accolades, Highland Park has been named "The Best Spirit in the World" on three occasions. Highland Park has previously ranked second, behind The Macallan.

All of which is to say, we really wanted to try-before-you-buy some Highland Park. Oddly, Highland Park is the only distillery we visited that does not do tastings, and was a bit rude about the fact—which left a rather bitter taste in our mouths I’m sorry to say.

Rennibister Earth House

Buried beneath the ground is a well-preserved Iron Age earth house or souterrain. When discovered in 1925, it contained a large quantity of human remains.

Local farmers built this subterranean passage about 2,500 years ago as part of their settlement.

Life in the Iron Age was steeped in symbolism, and souterrains may well have had a ritual function. The discovery of carefully arranged human remains here implies that the structure was used for this purpose—at least in its later years.
Originally access to the site was through a small opening in the distance (where you see the light), and you crawled to this larger space, which is now accessible through the hatch and ladder.

Despite getting to climb down a super-cool hatch into the ground, and know that you’re standing on a really ancient grave, there really isn’t much to see. The entire space only runs between this grate and the hatch. The only place with enough space to move is below the octagonal concrete pad.

Stones of Stenness

Are we getting a little jaded about seeing stone circles? Ah, yeah! There are over 900 of these things after all.

Which means we’re looking for something else to make things interesting—like this:
In 1814, the farmer leasing the land, annoyed at having to plough around the stones, started to pull down stones. He destroyed the nearby Odin Stone and toppled one of the Stones of Stenness before he was stopped.
The local population was so enraged that they attempted to burn his house down—twice!

Barnhouse Village

In 1984 archaeologists made a surprising discovery close to the Standing Stones of Stenness. Excavations uncovered a cluster of buildings, dating to about 5,000 years ago, including houses similar to Skara Brae.

Ness of Brodgar

This 5,000-year-old Neolithic complex is a current excavation site that is open to the public. We passed it on the day we visited Skara Brae but didn’t stop. We we passed again on Sunday, the site was closed. It was still cool to see an active dig site.

Ring of Brodgar

Thought to be between 4,400 and 4,600 years old, this is one of the largest henges (circular enclosure) in Britain. Rock and earth were dug out to create this outer ditch.

Found this little guy on the way back to the car.

Barbie

Amanda found out Kirkwall was home to the Orkney Theatre, and they were showing Barbie. Despite our best efforts to visit historic sites, we still had a massive amount of free time on our hands—which meant it was hard for me to argue against seeing a film in which I had no interest.

We bought our tickets and then went for coffee and a snack at Archive Coffee.

Back in the theater, we were the only adults without young kids, and I was the only man in the theater…so…more than a little embarrassing.

Good News—seeing the movie killed two hours and carried us through to dinner time.

Bad News—we had to watch Barbie 👎 👎

Good News—our dinner at Indian Garden in Kirkwall was excellent.

Amazing flower near where we parked for dinner.

Orkney Folklore & Storytelling Center

We booked the Peatfire Tales Of Orkney Evenings from 8 to 10 pm.

Lynn was a wonderfully gifted storyteller—charismatic and mesmerizing to hear. As you might imagine, however, she loved to talk and she didn’t seem to want to wrap up the night.

What started as a good way to kill time, ended up with me glancing at my watch repeatedly deciding when was my line in the sand to interrupt her and say we had to leave.

She finally wrapped up and we hightailed it to the NorthLink Ferry Terminal in Kirkwall. At the check-in kiosk our name was not on the car list! Oh crap!

Back in the day I booked our travel on NorthLink as one continuous trip:

Leg 1—Scottish Mainland to Orkney

Leg 2—Orkney to Shetland

Leg 3—Shetland to Aberdeen

Apparently, I booked a car for Leg 1, but not for Legs 2 & 3. (I blame poor website design.) At the main office we were told that either the loadmaster could squeeze our car on board or we could not sail again until Tuesday (two days later)! And, if we had to sail on Tuesday, we would not have a cabin.

And, we were the second people with the same issue, so there was already one car ahead of ours they were trying to “squeeze” onboard!

🤯 🤯 🤯

After much hand-wringing, the loadmaster radioed that he had room for our car.

😮‍💨 😮‍💨 😮‍💨

We crawled into bed around midnight and “slept” until 6:30 am, when they made the first announcement over the PA system.

Thankfully (shockingly), we had very calm seas. No fewer than a half dozen people, on different occasions, have warned us about how rough a ferry ride to Shetland can be. So grateful for a relatively mild passage.

Farewell Orkney