Kirkwall Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony 2008

Viki & I were at this last night and she took a few bits of video.

Except I took the first one, which is Kirkwall City Pipe Band playing on Broad Street prior to everyone going into the Cathedral:

So, after the service in the Cathedral, the local & Norwegian dignatories and school children portraying St Lucy and her attendants head back outside again for the switching on of the lights on the tree that our twin region of Hordaland in Norway donated to Orkney, as they have done for the last 25 years...

And finally, the Hordaland convenor gives the countdown, and the lights are switched on!

Ever Feel You're Being Watched?

If you happen to be walking round the outside of the Cathedral in Kirkwall, look up, and you will see these wonderful carvings dotted around the walls and edges of the roof...

Now, I've usually referred to these as gargoyles, but I'm beginning to think that at least some of them would be more correctly referred to as grotesques (see the links for the difference)...

But whatever they're called, I think they're great!

Not My Cross To Bear

This is just kind of propped up against the side of the Cathedral...

Outside In

Isn't it funny how something can look so ordinary from one side, and so lovely from the other?

For example, the window at the back of St Magnus Cathedral from outside:

and from inside:

Spot The Difference

On one of my Sunday wanders around the Cathedral and grounds, I was up the back and spotted something just below the big window that was glinting in the sun... and there was this tiny plaque (just a couple of inches long, and maybe just over an inch high) stuck in at a slightly recessed stone.

I couldn't really read what was written on it, but I zoomed in with my camera (in the days before I upgraded to my current camera), and posted the photo on the Orkney Communities Photo Library to see if anyone else could make it out:

OC Photo Library: 11752

The question was answered, and I thought no more about it until I got my new camera.

I thought I would try it out by going back and taking another photo of the plaque, and see how good the detail was... But, imagine my shock when I discovered the plaque was gone!

So I took a photo, posted it on the OC Photo Library, and asked "Where's it gone!?"

OC Photo Library: Number 13177

Well, as you can see by the comment I posted after, it appears that the powers-that-be at the Cathedral hadn't known the poor little plaque was there, and they took umbrage at its existence... and took it down!

It wasn't hurting anyone, and I now feel guilty that me bringing it to their attention might have been the cause of its demise!

More Grafitti

Tiny set of initials somewhere up the side of the Cathedral (they're about an inch tall):

I wonder who "J.W." is and when they were put there?

KCPB - Men In Skirts...

Last night I spent 2 and a bit very pleasant hours at "Ivan On The Apron" - an open-air concert with Kirkwall City Pipe Band and special guest, Orkney-born musician, Ivan Drever (former member of Wolfstone).

The "Apron" in question is a paved area with 3 steps around the edge, leading up to the front door of St Magnus Cathedral.

It had been a lovely day yesterday, so I decided I would go along... and it was a fantastic couple of hours! I got quite close to the railings at the side of the steps, but there was no pushing or jostling anyway... Just a couple of hundred people, aged from mere babes in arms up to grannies and granddads in wheelchairs, enjoying the music... some standing, some sitting on the Kirk Green as the sun went down (and the midges eventually buggered off)...

The first photo was taken just after the performance started at 8pm, so it was still reasonably light then:

This was a bit later, and you can see Ivan Drever at the mic, accompanied by one or two of the Pipe Band members:


This was a lot later, nearer 10pm, and it was dark by that time... although that didn't detract from the performance at all:


If you happen to have been there, and have stumbled upon this... Wasn't it a brilliant night?

Possibly One Of The Saddest Things...

in St Magnus Cathedral is this... The memorial to the 833 servicemen lost during WWII when the Revenge-class destroyer, HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed during a daring attack by Günther Prien, in command of German submarine U-47:

It happened in the early hours of 14th October, 1939, on what is described as a moonless night, with an impressive display of the Northern Lights, and most of the Royal Oak's crew of 1,234 men would have been asleep... Günther Prien quietly guided his submarine into the safe harbour of Scapa Flow, negotiating a way between the blockships that had been sunk there to stop infiltration, and torpedoed the ship.

It took 1 hour, 2 minutes from Prien entering the Flow until Royal Oak sank, rendering her the first of the five battleships and battlecruisers of the Royal Navy sunk in the Second World War, only about a month after War had been declared.

Today HMS Royal Oak is a protected war grave, lying in comparatively shallow water in Scapa Flow, her hull barely 5m from the surface.

The memorial consists of a plaque dedicated to those that lost their lives, a book with the names of all the dead, and the bell from the ship, recovered in the 1970's and restored.

This memorial ties in with photos I've posted already of The Italian Chapel, because it was the sinking of HMS Royal Oak that led Winston Churchill to order the construction of The Churchill Barriers, to completely cut off access between the small islands. The contract for building the Barriers was awarded to Balfour Beatty, but much of the labour was done by the Italian Prisoners Of War held in Orkney... and it was some of those men that built and decorated The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm.

Grave Humour

Okay, I posted this photo on another website once, and it got me one or two "That's not funny" comments... But I'm prepared to risk more wrath ("Publish and be damned!" I say... Besides which, I have to approve any comments on here, and angry diatribes just won't be published!) by putting it here:

I saw this photo in the graveyard of St Magnus Cathedral, and it made me smile... just the "(By Accident)" bit... I know it probably means "as the result of an accident", but I read it and thought "Well, he probably didn't mean to die, right enough!"

(I've obscured the name on the gravestone just in case).

Through The Round Window

I love looking at things around our St Magnus Cathedral from odd angles...

Like this photo, looking up at the Rose Window:

Viki's Photos From On Top O' The Moosie Tooer

A couple of photos that Viki took from the top of the tower of Bishop's Palace, Kirkwall because I wasn't brave enough to go up that high!

Firstly, looking down into the palace... Eww - I've come over all peculiar just looking at the photo!

Then, a view down into the Cathedral graveyard...

Like The Sun On The.... er... Pillar

If you time it right, and get the sun coming through the stained-glass windows of St Magnus Cathedral, you get the most beautiful reflection effects on the red sandstone pillars...

I love how the blue reflections in this photo can make the normally warm-coloured pillars look so cold, almost ice-like.

I think I turned the flash off in this photo... the cathedral lighting is quite subdued and and not "in yer face" anyway, but I wanted to minimise the background detail so the photo wasn't too "busy".

Gravestone 2

Up the back of the graveyard at the Cathedral is this stone... See if you can spot the mistake (you can click on the image to get a bigger version):

(Answers on a comment)

Gravestone 1

(Click on the image to enlarge it)...

A broken gravestone in the graveyard at St Magnus Cathedral... Read here for whatever significance (or maybe not) it has for me: Fairick Fae Hether Blether: Spooky!

Arctic Explorer And Orcadian, John Rae...

Well, not him obviously... his memorial in St Magnus Cathedral (my favourite bit of one of my favourite places... I remember being fascinated by this when I was young, because it looks so true to life... It was just like he was sleeping), and his grave in the churchyard...

Read about him here: Orkneyjar: John Rae (© Sigurd Towrie)
and here: Wikipedia: John Rae

The Memorial:

Such a humble, low-profile grave, tucked right up in the back corner of the churchyard:

Close up of the epitaph:

Definitely an unsung hero, and a victim of negative press at the time, because he dared to tell the truth.