Two other interesting old Scoto-Orcadian mansions are Skaill House in Sandwick, and Carrick House in Eday, the latter erected in the seventeenth century by John, brother of Earl Patrick Stewart, who was himself created Earl of Carrick by King Charles I. At a later date the house was the property of James Fea of Clestrain, who in 1725 captured in the neighbourhood the celebrated pirate John Gow.
In the towns and villages of Orkney and Shetland, where the main street usually runs parallel to the shore, many of the houses stand with one gable towards the street and the other closely overlooking the sea, a feature which gives a distinctly foreign aspect to Lerwick and Stromness in particular. It is sober fact that in many houses in Stromness, granted a taste for fish, and a high tide at the appropriate hour, one can catch one’s breakfast from the gable windows before getting out of bed.
18. Communications, Past and Present
Before the days of steam communication there were two ferries across the Pentland Firth to Huna in Caithness, one from Walls and the other from South Ronaldshay. Edinburgh was the usual objective of Orcadians using this route, and Shanks’ nag the common means of locomotion, save for persons of quality, who rode horses. The only other means of reaching the Scottish capital, the sole place out of the Islands which old-world Orcadians considered of much account, and a place where all the well-to-do among them had relations, cronies, and “gude-gangin’ pleas,” was by occasional sailing packets from Kirkwall to Leith.
Steamboat communication between Kirkwall and Leith and Aberdeen was established about 1832, and nowadays there are two boats a week between these ports and the Orcadian capital, besides two to Stromness, and a fortnightly boat to St Margaret’s Hope. There is also a daily mail-steamer from Stromness, touching at Kirkwall (Scapa) and South Ronaldshay, to Scrabster in Caithness, thus connecting the Islands with the Highland Railway at Thurso. Stromness is farther connected with Liverpool and Manchester by a weekly steamer, and both Kirkwall and Stromness with Lerwick and Scalloway in Shetland. Kirkwall has communication with the more important of the North Isles, and Stromness with the chief of the South Isles (except South Ronaldshay and Burray) by local steamers sailing several times a week. Motor or horse conveyances run between Kirkwall and Stromness several times a day. There are no railways in Orkney.
The first Orkney Road Act was passed in 1857, and under that and subsequent local Acts, and finally under the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act of 1874, the greater part of the roads in the county were constructed. The agricultural depression and land legislation of the “eighties,” by attenuating the incomes of proprietors, tended somewhat to check this development; but a dozen years or so later the Congested Districts Board came to the rescue with grants-in-aid, largely by means of which many miles of new roads were completed. With very few exceptions, all the islands of any population are now amply provided with good roads.
19. Administration and Divisions
Orkney forms one Sheriffdom with Caithness and Shetland, and has a resident Sheriff-Substitute at Kirkwall. There is one Lord-Lieutenant for Orkney and Shetland, but his deputies and the Commission of the Peace are appointed separately for each group. In all other matters of county administration Orkney forms a separate unit, and for the purposes of the Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1889 the county is divided into four districts, one comprising the Mainland, one the North Isles, one the civil parish of South Ronaldshay and Burray, and the fourth the two parishes of Walls and Flotta and Hoy and Graemsay. A feature of county administration perhaps peculiar to Orkney is that each island forms a unit of assessment for the construction and maintenance of its own roads. The control of piers and harbours in Orkney is of a somewhat diversified order. The Orkney Piers and Harbours Commissioners, a body acting under special statutes, control the piers and harbours at Kirkwall, Scapa, Holm in the Mainland, and at Stronsay, Sanday, and Westray in the North Isles. Stromness and St Margaret’s Hope possess their own Harbour or Pier Commissioners, and the piers at Longhope, Burray, Egilsay, and North Ronaldshay are managed by the County Council.
Of 21 civil parishes in Orkney, Walls and Flotta, Hoy and Graemsay, and South Ronaldshay and Burray are in the South Isles; Stromness, Sandwick, Harray and Birsay, Evie and Rendal, Firth, Stenness, Orphir, Kirkwall and St Ola, Holm, and St Andrews and Deerness are in the Mainland; and Shapinsay, Stronsay, Eday, Rousay, Westray, Papa Westray, Lady, and Cross and Burness are in the North Isles.
Ecclesiastically Orkney forms a Synod of the Church of Scotland, comprising the three Presbyteries of Kirkwall, Cairston (the old name of Stromness), and North Isles. There are 27 ecclesiastical parishes. St Magnus Cathedral is a collegiate church, with ministers of first and second charge.