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Historic Towns & Picturesque Villages

Rough seas
© Tracey Smallman (view gallery)
Rough seas at Dingeshowe

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Rough seas
© Tracey Smallman (view gallery)
Dingeshowe

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St Magnus Cathedral
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
St Magnus Cathedral was founded primarily as a final resting place for the relics of St Magnus. Work on its construction started in 1137. The ancient Cathedral remains a simbol of the 600-year Norse sway over Orkney, and of the power and wealth of the Norse Earldom. For over 875 years it has dominated Kirkwall.

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Earl's Palace
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
The Earl’s Palace was built around 1606 by Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney. Known as ‘Black Patie’, the tyrannical Patrick ruled the Northern Isles with an iron fist from 1592 until his execution for the treason in 1615. It was declared at his trial that he used slave labour to build his residences.

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Bishop’s Palace, Moosie Tower
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
The Bishop’s Palace was built around the same time as St Magnus’s Cathedral, in the early 12th century. The builder may well have been Bishop William ‘the Old’ (d.1168), crusader and friend of Earl Rognvald, St Magnus’s nephew and patron of the new Cathedral.

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St Magnus Cathedral from Watergate
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)

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Junction Road
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
Kirkwall is the capital of Orkney. For centuries it was the capital of the Norse - held Nordreyjar – the Northern Isles. But that ended in 1469 when Christian I of Norway failed to pay the dowry promised to his son-in-law, James III of Scotland; James called in the debt by assuming sovereignty of Orkney and Shetland.

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Junction Road
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)

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Entrance to St Magnus Cathedral
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
The splendid use of contrasting building stone. The red was quarried 4 km north of Kirkwall at Head of Holland, the yellow most probably from Fers Ness on Eday.

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St Magnus, 2007, Orkney, Scotland
© David Brawson (view gallery)

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St Magnus Cathedral
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
One of the west doorways.

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Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland
© David Brawson (view gallery)

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Inside the Cathedral
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)

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Kirkwall Harbour, Orkney, Scotland
© David Brawson (view gallery)

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War Memorial Arch
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
The path through the northern churchyard of St Magnus Cathedral goes through this archway, which acts as a Memorial to the fallen of the First World War.

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Water trickle
© Tracey Smallman (view gallery)
Taken at the Gloup at Mull Head, Deerness

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The A962 – Britain’s shortest ‘A’ road
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
Looking along West Castle Street from its junction with Junction Road. Officially measured by Orkney Council at 117m in length, this is thus the shortest 'A' road in Britain.

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Mull Head
© Tracey Smallman (view gallery)
The view from Mull Head, looking towards the mainland

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St Magnus Cathedral, the font
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
The 19th century font, dedicated to the memory of James Stewart (1834-1883). Carved around its rim are Bible exstracts from Mark 10:14 and Luke 18:16.

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Mull Head
© Tracey Smallman (view gallery)

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The Cathedral, St Rognvald Chapel
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)

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The Gloup
© Tracey Smallman (view gallery)
The gloup at Mull head, Deerness.

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Statue of St Olaf
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
Statue of St Olaf presented by the Bishop of Nidaros as a gift from the Church of Norway on the occasion of the Cathedral's 800th anniversary.

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The monument to John Rae
© Victor Naumenko (view gallery)
The monument to John Rae, an Orcadian Arctic explorer and intrepid discoverer of the fate of Sir John Franklin's last expedition.

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A Slideshow of Kirkwall, in the county of Orkney

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