Kirkwall - St Magnus Cathedral

Kirkwall was first mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga in 1046, when it was recorded as the residence of Rögnvald Brusason, Earl of Orkney, who was killed by his uncle Thorfinn Sigurdsson (aka Thorfinn the Mighty) on the island of Stronsay.


St Magnus Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Scotland and the most northerly cathedral in the United Kingdom - an example of architecture built when the islands were ruled by the Norse Earls of Orkney.

In 1137 the cathedral was founded by Jarl Rögnvald Kali Kolsson. The church was entrusted to the patronage of Saint Magnus Erlendsson, an uncle of the founder. Before the Reformation, the cathedral belonged to the Archdiocese of Trondheim. After Orkney had become part of the Scottish kingdom, the cathedral was handed over to the burgh of Kirkwall in 1486. During the Reformation worship was reformed in 1560. However, unlike many churches in Scotland, there was no iconoclasm. Today, the cathedral is used by the Church of Scotland.

The oldest parts of the cathedral are the transept, the choir and the east side of the nave. The cathedral was built in a mixture of northwest European, Romanesque-Norman and early Gothic styles. The east side ended in an apse in the 12th century. Only speculation is known about the west building. A double-towered facade is said to have been planned in the 13th century. The most recent parts of the cathedral are in the west.


Behind the altar in the middle stands the figure of Jarl Rögnvald Kali Kolsson, the founder of the cathedral. He came from Norway to successfully claim the earldom of Orkney in 1137. After returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1153, he was murdered in 1158. He is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

On the left is an architect, on the right a bishop - and on the altar is a model of a Viking ship.