Don't Darken My Door - Earl's Palace

Plans for one final big push to end our trip fell into disarray and we ended up lazing our way through it. It was nice though. We'd covers (and recovered) a lot of ground over the past week and aside from our trip to Westray, the weathers been wonderful. A couple of sunny days and a couple of misty days but all wonderful. Today was one of the former as we drove into Kirkwall to visit St. Magnus Cathedral after missing out yesterday. Just as well we turned up early too, as there was another afternoon wedding taking place today.

Construction of the Cathedral began in 1137 under Bishop William the Old and continued for the following 300 years as successive bishops added to it. Along with the cathedral, a palace was also constructed on the site as residence for one of the most wealthy and powerful men on the island. The original building was constructed while the islands were under the rule of the Norse Earls but following the annexing of Orkney by the Scottish Crown in 1468, Kirkwall became a Royal Burgh and the cathedral passed into their hands and not those of the Church. Following the Reformation, the cathedral became the parish church of the Church of Scotland. As a Presbyterian building, it isn't really a cathedral any more.

He nearby Earl's Palace was constructed from 1607 onwards using forced labour by the tyrannical second Earl of Orkney, Patrick Stewart. He had decided that the existing Bishops Palace wasn't suitable for his needs and ordered the adjoining palace built. Walking through it today you can still feel the extravagance and lavishness. Beautiful architecture, impressive window openings and enough privies to accommodate a rugby team in one go it really does stand apart from the palace across the road. The land to build upon was "acquired" by nefarious means and trumped up charges against the present owner that reunited in his execution and the land passing to the Earl but what goes around, comes around and following the accusation of treason against both he and his son Robert, the Earl of Caithness laid siege and the palace was seized for the Crown and the pair were soon thereafter executed.

Carefully avoiding the shops... we headed out to Stromness for a wee drive round the town. We parked on the west side and while Gitama tried for a nap to try to recover from her upset tummy, I wandered round the shore where I came across the remains of the Links battery, part of the coastal defences for western approaches to the naval base at Scapa Flow. Not much remains, just the concrete shells that contained the gun and observation station with a concrete Nissen type building that seems to be used by the golf club to store equipment for the course.

A spot of lunch and slice of heavenly apple pie and ice cream at Julia's Bistro across from the ferry terminal before it was time to check in and before you knew it our time on Orkney came to an end. It was sad leaving behind the place we called home for the past week but I'll be back. There's still so much to see and in spite of staying just 5 mins drive down the road from it we never did make it across the causeway to the Brough of Birsay. The tidal times were just against us. In hindsight we should have gone at the start of the week but with a daily extension of an hour a day we'd just have missed out on too much else staying close to make it over. Still, something to come back for... While I'm mentioning Birsay, I can't recommend highly enough the Ocean View cottage where we stayed. Perfectly located on the north coast, it's a lovely wee place, modern and well appointed, for up to four (one double, one twin room).

The last time I was up this way the ferry trip back to the mainland was mired in a sea fog so thick the ships horn sounded for much of the trip. Not today. Another corker with hardly a cloud in the sky. We were able to see Hoy and the Old Man quite clearly from the sun deck as we passed and when we landed at Scrabster, it was lovely to see the weather was the same here too. Last time, I drove all the way round to Durness on the north west coast but this time we only had to go an hour or so across the north coast to Bettyhill where we were staying the night. It was a lovely drive and mostly new for me, having only seen about ten feet in any direction the last time I drove the route.

Both internet and mobile connections were atrocious at the hotel but after the late night packing and early start this morning I was quite happy being disconnected for the night though. Sleep soon followed.

Gitama's take on the day can be found here.