Loading Stores at Scapa Pier.
Wideford Hill and the "Peerie Sea."
Conveyances known locally as "machines" (they do not speak of traps or chars-à-bancs in Orkney) are always available to convey one to Kirkwall from the Pier, and anyone who has travelled over that bumpy road in one of these vehicles will not forget the experience!
Kirkwall Harbour from the Cathedral Tower.
Arrived in Kirkwall and suitably refreshed (let me recommend the Ayre Hotel of many pleasant memories), the most striking building which meets the eye, and which dominates the town, is the Cathedral of St. Magnus. Kirkwall, as its name signifies (Kirkevaag or Kirk Voe), is the bay of the church, although the original church from which the town takes its name was not that of St. Magnus. Founded before the middle of the twelfth century, it is a very fine example of Gothic architecture, which, fortunately, owing to its remoteness, escaped the zeal of the Reformers, and remains to-day a stately witness of the Norse warriors of old, who played such a prominent and adventurous part in the history of Orkney. Near by are the Bishop's and Earl's Palaces, both also eloquent relics of the days when feasting and fighting were the main preoccupations of the Norse Jarls, whose exploits are recounted so graphically in the "Orkneyinga Saga."