page_title: St Magnus Cathedral
section_title: Architecture and history
hierarchical_section_title: St Magnus Cathedral / Architecture and history
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: journalofroyalso1899roya (find matches) Title: Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Year: 1849 (1840s) Authors: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Transactions Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Proceedings and transactions Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Proceedings and papers Subjects: Publisher: Dublin, Ireland&#160;: The Society Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Digitizing Sponsor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ginningof the inscription. But the most interesting bit of carving remaining is the Dragon, PROCEKDINGS. 287 on the buttress, in the right-hand corner facing the entrance. Before leaving theChaniher take up a position witli your hatk to the inner ^-aW, and face the entrance.The view through the entrance passage is then very restricted, but careful observationwill enable you to discern, in the distance, the stone of Tormiston, already referredto; and an interesting fact, pointed out in the Paper referred to is, that the_ distancebetween this spot and the stone at Tormiston is the same as that from it to theWatch-stone. Kirkwall and its Cathedkal. The run from Stromness to Scapa Bay takes about an hour. Shortlyafter rounding Houton Head, and passing the Holm of the same namewill be observed the parish church of Orphir, at the east side of which,and almost adjoining it, are the remains of a circular church&#160;; nothingbut the aemi-circular apse and a fragment of the arc on cich side remain. Text Appearing After Image: Kirkwall Cathedral. Ground-plan. This is the only kuown church of the kind in ^Scotland, although thereare five in England. This one was built in the beginning of the twelfthcentury. Near it stood the palace of the Earls of Orkney, probably atthe site of the faim house nearest the ruin. In a bay in this vicinityKing Haco arrived in Orkney after his defeat at Largs, and went over-land to Kirkwall, where he died in the Bishops Palace. From the anchorage in Scapa Bay may be seen the roofs of the housesin Kirkwall overtopped by the cathedral. The site chosen for its erectionmakes its tower a landmark seen from a longdistance, from Caithness inthe south, and from several of the north Isles of Orkney. In Scapa Bay,N.N.W. from the anchorage, there is a distillery with a burn alongsideof it running into the bay. At the mouth of this burn on its west side 288 ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF IRELAND. is the Broeh of Lingrow, with its numerous secondary buildings. ThisBroch yielded many interest Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall dominates the skyline of Kirkwall, the main town of Orkney, a group of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. It is the most northerly cathedral in the United Kingdom, a fine example of Romanesque architecture built for the bishops of Orkney when the islands were ruled by the Norse Earls of Orkney. It is owned not by the church, but by the burgh of Kirkwall as a result of an act of King James III of Scotland following Orkney's annexation by the Scottish Crown in 1468. It has its own dungeon.
  Construction began in 1137, and it was added to over the next 300 years. The first bishop was William the Old, and the diocese was under the authority of the Archbishop of Nidaros in Norway. It was for Bishop William that the nearby Bishop's Palace was built.
  Before the Reformation, the cathedral was presided over by the Bishop of Orkney, whose seat was in Kirkwall.
context_section_description: The Romanesque cathedral begun in 1137 has fine examples of Norman architecture, attributed to English masons who may have worked on Durham Cathedral. The masonry uses red sandstone quarried near Kirkwall and yellow sandstone from the island of Eday, often in alternating courses or in a chequerboard pattern to give a polychrome effect.
  As completed during the 12th century, the original cathedral had three aisled bays to the chancel with the bay at the east end shorter, and apsed in a similar way to the original apse at Durham, a transept with single east chapel, and eight bays to the nave as at Durham and Dunfermline Abbey. When the cathedral was ready for consecration the relics of St Magnus were enshrined in it. In 1917, a hidden cavity in a column was found, containing a box with bones including a skull showing a wound consistent with a blow from an axe. The original cathedral comprises the choir of today's church.
  In the late 12th and early 13th century, the building was extended to the east with vaulting throughout, and, in the late 14th century, the present lower front was joined to the rest of the building. These later elements introduced the Gothic style with pointed arches.
  In 1468, when Orkney was annexed for Scotland by King James III, St Magnus Cathedral came under the control of the Archbishop of St Andrews; the Bishops of Aberdeen and Orkney were subsequently of Scots rather than Scandinavian origin. Most notable amongst them was Bishop Robert Reid, who presided at St Magnus from 1541 to 1558.
  The Protestant Reformation in 1560 had a less dramatic effect on St Magnus Cathedral than in some other parts of Scotland, but the church had a narrow escape in 1614. Government forces suppressing the rebellion of Robert, the son of Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney, had besieged and destroyed Kirkwall Castle and intended to destroy St. Magnus Cathedral after rebels had hidden inside. The bishop James Law intervened to prevent them from carrying out this plan.
  Major work was undertaken on the cathedral in 1908 by the architect George Mackie Watson: this included replacing the dumpy slated pyramid atop the tower with a taller spire clothed in copper sheeting. As a result, today's cathedral looks much more as it did until its original spire was struck by lightning in the late 17th century. Restoration and renovation work on the building continues, with increased urgency since it was discovered in the 1970s that the west end of the cathedral was in danger of collapsing away from the remainder of the structure. Other work has progressed further, and to celebrate its 850th anniversary in 1987 Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a magnificent new west window.  St. Magnus is the only wholly mediaeval Scottish cathedral, and one of the best-preserved buildings of the era in Britain.
  The cathedral contains memorials to prominent Orcadians including explorers William Balfour Baikie and Dr John Rae, writers Eric Linklater, George Mackay Brown and Edwin Muir, artist Stanley Cursiter and psychiatrist Sir Thomas Clouston.
caption: Floorplan
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