Finstown is a small settlement about halfway between Kirkwall and Stromness. Its War Memorial is a simple obelisk lying beside the A 965 road through the village:-

Closer view:-

Dedication “to the soldiers and sailors of Firth.” (Finstown lies on the Bay of Firth,) and names Flett-Hourston:-

Names Sclater-Turfus:-

Names Kent – Scarth:-

World War 2 Dedication and Names:-

In the graveyard behind the memorial lie two Commonwealth War Graves, both from World War 2.

Marine N Isbister, RML, HMS Proserpine, 8/7/1944, aged 24, a local whose name is on the War Memorial:-

Lance Bombardier J M Bews, Royal Artillery, 26/3/1941, aged 20:-

Cairn’s entrance ladder:-

Entrance from inside. You can see it’s quite restricted. The woman in the picture was our travelling companion:-

There is some graffiti on the walls.

Interior side wall (i):-

Interior side wall (ii):-

Close up on graffiti:-

Original entrance from inside:-

Chambers:-

The side of Wideford Hill where the chamber sits overlooks an inlet of the NorthSea/Atlantic called the Bay of Firth. The settlement of Finstown lies to the far left of the Firth, beyond the islands as seen in this photo stitch:-

Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn, Orkney was one of the ancient sites in the Orkney Islands we didn’t visit in 2017. We tyook it in in June last year.

The approach is up a very steep – and winding – farm road till you reach the car park (grandiose description for two parking spaces) from which you can look down to Kirkwall. The photo also shows some of the road:-

There is a view of Scapa Flow from there too:-

A notice at the car park said the chambered cairn was about half a mile away on a path round the hill. It was much longer than that.

You can see me walking the path here in a photo taken by the good lady. As you can see the cairn is nowhere in sight and we had been walking for about twenty minutes by this time:-

Cairn from path. To the left you can see the box in which the key to the entrance is kept and the information board:-

Information board:-

Original entrance (now gridded off):-

Cairn from above. The modern entrance is the blue square on its top

I mentioned the Italian Chapel on Orkney before. On that 2017 visit we didn’t go inside, in June this* year we lingered a bit longer.

Information board:-

Internal Information board:-

Door wall from inside. Unfortunately the light from outside obscures things for the camera a bit:-

Frieze above door:-

The interior is striking. Amazingly all of the effects are examples of trompe l’oeil. What looks like tiling is in fact painted. The metal bits were made from bits of tin can and such, fashioned into shape.

Altar:-

Closer view of altar:-

Ceiling:-

More of ceiling:-

*It’s last year now.

Looking towards entrance door:-

Towards altar:-

Note lighted room high up above further arch:-

On side wall of Cathedral:-

Though I posted about the Royal Oak Memorial in Kirkwall’s St Magnus Cathedral in 2017 I didn’t photograph these wall-mounted memorials when we were in Orkney then.

In memory of the men of the Cathedral’s congregation who died in the Great War:-

To William Baikie, Watson, MC, Lieutenant Royal Field Artil 25.lery, 29/9/1918, aged 25:-

In memory of Archibald Garden Robertson, 2nd Lieutenant, Black Watch, attached to RFC, 8/6/1917:-

Beautiful design of a wireless in Wireless Museum, Kirkwall:-

Art Deco Wireless Designs, Wireless Museum, Kirkwall. Bakelite construction too:-

A couple of buildings in Kirkwall I missed on our 2017 visit to Orkney.

The Library:-

Closer view:-

Window and decal detail:-

Viking ship detail above a doorway of the Post Office:-

Stromness, Orkney’s second biggest town, has a very good museum.

Due to Stromness’s seafaring past the museum has a bias towards polar exploration which these sculptures in bone reflect:-

There is also a large display of stuffed animals (mostly behind glass) but this turtle was above the door to the upstairs exhibition space:-

The background to one of the display cases was this illustration by Orkney painter Stanley Cursiter:-

Another of Orkney’s – indeed Stromness’s – favourite sons was the writer George Mckay Brown. The museum houses his Chair:-

The previous time we visited the Brough of Birsay see here and here, the rain started to come in horizontally so we cut things short.

In June this year the weather was much more amenable.

On the way up we had stopped off at Marwick Head again.

Hoy from Marwick Head, Old man of Hoy just visible poking up at right hand end of island:-

Marwick Head from Brough of Birsay, Kitchener Memorial standing out on Marwick Head:-

Mainland Orkney from Brough of Birsay:-

Viking ruins lie close to the causeway from the mainland:-

This time we were able to stroll to the lighthouse:-

Stevenson Lighthouse, Brough of Birsay from path across the brough:-

Close up:-

From northwest:-

From South:-