As seen from my previous post, Kirkwall’s War Memorial (also dedicated to the parish of St Ola) is located right beside St Magnus Cathedral – which is in the background the first, third and fourth photo here. The Memorial is in the form of an arch which acts as a gateway to the churchyard and cemetery behind. The original pillars are dedicated to the Great War. The external pillars were added to commemorate the Second World War.

Left hand pillars:-

Right hand pillars with wreath. St Magnus Cathedral in background:-

War Memorial Arch. “To the glory of God in memory of the men of Kirkwall and St Ola who fell for freedom in the Great War”:-

The first day we visited Kirkwall, Orkney’s biggest town, was quite rainy, which was why we chose to go there as we hoped to be able to nip in and out of shops as necessary.

St Magnus Cathedral, Britain’s most northerly, was built in memory of St Magnus and to hold his relics.

It dominates the skyline of Kirkwall and is impressive from close up:-

This angle shows Kirkwall’s War Memorial arch to the left:-

Cathedral from churchyard behind:-

Cathedral side door:-

The interior is also impressive, monumental but somehow on a human scale.

Ceiling and window behind altar:-

Stained glass window above main entrance:-

The Unstan Cairn stands near the shores of the Loch of Stenness. It’s signposted from the main Kirkwall-Stromness road. Access is via a farm road/track but there is a small car park by the final path to the cairn.

Unlike some of the neolithic remnants we visited on Orkney we had his one to ourselves.

From northeast:-

From northwest:-

Entrance. There is a latched gate to open before crawling into the chambers:-

Entrance to interior from gate:-

We were surprised and delighted that there was plenty of light inside as it has a modern roof with a skylight.

Interior:-

A side chamber:-

Another side chamber:-

In time-honoured tradition people have carved grafitti onto the stones (as those Vikings did at Maeshowe). Some of this at Unstan is very modern, though. Well, there’s no attendant to stop it:-

This carving may be old though:-

Entrance/exit in natural light:-

Entrance/exit lit by flash:-

Skaill House is Orkney’s biggest mansion house. It overlooks the Bay of Skaill and in its grounds were discovered the remains of the neolithic village of Skara Brae (see earlier posts.) Since the ticket for Skara Brae also conferred entry to the house we had a look round.

Skaill House from path from Skara Brae:-

Skaill House Entrance:-

Skaill House, cartouche above entrance:-

Skaill House Library:-

Skaill House Library circular window. This is the window you can see in the rightmost part of the house in the first photograph above:-

Skaill House Library, books:-

Skaill House, framed crest and flags. The flag and naval ensign surmounting crest of Imperial Germany:-

Skaill House Armada Chest. Many of the ships from the Spanish Armada made their way up round the top of Great Britain (and Orkney) and were wrecked. Some settled in Orkney:-

On one of his voyages Captain Cook’s ship landed at Stromness, and he was entertained at Skaill House. His dinner service from the Resolution was acquired later by the house and can be seen in the press (cupboard) to the left in the photo below:-

One of the house’s past owners had a model of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, built for him and it sits behind glass in a bedroom:-

A son of the house was involved in the British intervention in Russia after the second Revolution of 1917. Photographs and other memorabilia:-

An unknown sailor of the Great War, HMS Narborough, 12/1/1918:-

An unknown sailor from the Royal Oak, sunk by a German submarine, 14/10/1939:-

There are civilian burials in the cemetery at Lyness. Whether these deaths were due to enemy action or not is not made clear on the gravestones.

A Merchant Navy Seaman, Ham Fat, fireman, SS Pass of Leny, 14/6/1943:-

T H Coleman, First Radio Officer, S S Vasna, 17/9/1941, aged 46:-

“A Parsee” and “A Musalman” Sailor:-

K Ullah, fireman and trimmer, K Ullah, SS Mostyn, 30/1/1941, aged 32:-

Unusually for a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, in Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery, Hoy, Orkney, there are memorials other than the Cross of Sacrifice and the individual graves.

I posted about the HMS Vanguard Memorial on the anniversary of its sinking.

There is also a memorial to HMS Hampshire on which Lord Kitchener and many others died.

HMS Malaya went down in the Battle of Jutland:-

This cross commemorates Roman Catholics:-

The following memorial is to “Henry Dixon Dixon-Wright, Chaplain to HMS Barham, died 1/6/1916 of wounds received in the Battle of Jutland and in memory of officers of HMS Barham who fell that day and lie at sea.” (I note the absence of “and men” in the dedication):-

Gravestone of Zu Sing Kang RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) who died at Scapa Flow, 2/5/1916. “Erected in memory of a kind act done by a Chinaman in nursing a blinded working man afterwards Senator McGregor of the Australian Commonwealth”:-

A Boy Telegraphist, C Rogerson, HMS Pembroke I, 5/1/1918:-

A Boy 1st Class, J T Porter, HMS Malaya, 31/5/1916:-

German graves:-

Maeshowe is another neolithic site in Orkney I’d always wished to visit. It’s a 5,000 years old chambered cairn, with three burial chambers, two of which dog-leg to the right, one to the left. The bodies were exposed to the elements to be stripped down to the bones before being placed in the chamber.

Unlike other sites on Orkney you can only visit Maeshowe on a guided tour. The car park by the access path has been closed and access is only via a bus from the Visitor Centre in nearby Stenness village. The guide said the road was too dangerous to allow cars to turn in and out and pedestrians to cross unsupervised. Apparently someone had been clocked going at 152 miles per hour along the road!

Unfortunately internal photographs are not allowed. The guide said that was for reasons of time.

You have to bend down and stoop for metres to get into the chamber proper through the access tunnel. You’ll find a photo of the tunnel here.

In deepest winter around the winter solstice a shaft of sunlight lights up the passage and enters the large central chamber. There is a webcam site which shows live pictures from November to February. They seem to have had some trouble with it last year though.

In 1153 some Vikings broke in to Maeshowe to get shelter during a snowstorm which lasted for days and spent their time carving runes. These can be dated fairly precisely as this type of runes was only in use for a short time. Some of the runes can be seen on the Orkneyjar web page.

Also inscribed was a fenrir which some people call the Maeshowe dragon.

Maeshowe from access path:-

Maeshowe showing ring rampart:-

From access path, showing entrance:-

Entrance:-

Maeshowe from south:-

From north:-

Stones of Stenness (to left) and Ness and Ring of Brodgar (to right) from Maeshowe. Loch of Harray in middle ground, Loch of Stenness above and to left :-

Just at the beginning of the path from the Visitor Centre to the Skara Brae excavations there is a modern mock up of what the neolithic houses at the site may have looked like.

Entrance to Mock Skara Brae House:-

Internal Passage:-

I doubt the original houses had the electric light fitting!:-

Mock up bed:-

Mock Up Ceiling:-

Mock up, hearth and dresser:-

Skara Brae (see previous posts) lies beside the Bay of Skaill which has a lovely scenic beach.

Beach from Skara Brae:-

Panorama of bay and beach:-

There was a colouration difference under the water here:-

Further along the beach we spotted a fairly picturesque ruined building, perhaps once a croft:-

The abandoned agricultural equipment in foreground bolsters that assumption:-

Further along still we found this fantastic rock formation, layers on layers of sediment:-

You can see the slabs lying in the foreground. Lots of buildings in Orkney seemed to be made from slabs of stone like this.

General scene of excavated houses – tourist path in background:-

Stone dresser:-

Excavated path:-

More excavations:-

This has no beds nor dresser and so it is believed to be a neolithic workshop, photo taken from west. The beach at Skaill Bay is visible to left (in Skara Brae’s heyday the sea was much further out) Skaill House in background:-

Neolithic Workshop from North, Skaill House in background:-

Neolithic workshop from East:-