Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland

 Sunday July 27, 2025

Today we docked in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It is our northernmost port on this cruise and is the same latitude as the southern part of Greenland. The Orkney Islands are a group of about 70 islands with about 20 of them being inhabited. They are located about 10 miles off the north coast of Scotland.

As our ship sailed in we admired the scenery which was reminiscent of the more rural parts of Iceland. Green and beautiful! The weather was all over the place… rain, fog, sun, wind… classic Scottish weather.

The town we visited was called Kirkwall. It is about a 40 minute walk from the cruise ship pier, but conveniently the town of Kirkwall provides a free shuttle into town that takes about five minutes.

Kirkwall is the capital city of the Orkney Islands, but still only has a population of about 10,000 people. Despite this it was a beautiful well developed town with lots of shops, distilleries (beer, whiskey and even gin) and interesting sites to see. We enjoyed our walk around the town and even into some residential areas. The houses and yards are very well kept. If I came to Kirkwall again I would probably go out to the countryside and visit some of the archaeological sites, but this time we decided to explore the things in the town.

We started with a little shopping. Everything wasn’t open yet because it was Sunday morning, but there were enough shops open for us to pick up some souvenirs, some “tablet” (very sweet treat!) as recommended by our friend Richard, and a picture book for school about some puffins (I love puffins!) called “The Steve’s”. How can you pass up a book about puffins called “The Steve’s”?

Side note: This reminds me that a lady on the cruise yesterday was certain that Steve was Steve Kerr again… I think we may need to investigate if they are related!

Celebrity mistaken identity counter = 3!

We also stopped into a couple of craft fairs. There seemed to be a lot of local artisans who had things to sell. I heard one lady say she has a lot of spare time to make stuff because the winters are so long! It does make me wonder how desolate it could be come in a far north, remote area like this with a long winter. (I just looked it up… it’s not as cold as you might think! The average high in December is 7 degrees celsius.) The darkness might be a problem though. In December on the shortest day they only have about 6 hours of daylight!

Update: Now the internet says that there are 6 hours of daylight, but on our trip to Inverness which is south of here the tour guide said that in the winter on the shortest day of the year they get NO daylight… so I’m not sure exactly what happens here! Further research is required!

Here are some photos from our walk:

Tried some Scottish "tablet". Verdict: Sweet VERY SWEET!

After our shopping and a walk around the town we decided to look at a few of the important sites.

The first place we came across was St. Magnus Cathedral and it’s cemetery behind it. Church was in session, so not open for tourists until later in the day, but we did wander for quite a bit of time in the beautiful cemetery. My interest was piqued because I thought perhaps I had found some ancestors as there seemed to be a prominent family with the last name Chalmers (which was my Granny’s maiden name), but Gary who is the keeper of information said he couldn’t find any of our Chalmers in Scotland so if we are connected it is WAY FAR back! So we still haven’t found any of our ancestors in the cemeteries. The search continues!

Same name... are you sure we aren't related Gary?

Another interesting one! Imagine being an Arctic Explorer this long ago!

The next place we visited was the Earl and Bishop’s Palace. These are two separate sites of ruins that were built about 400 years apart but belonged to one continuous building before they became ruins. The medieval Bishop's Palace was built in the early 1100s. This was about the same time as St. Magnus Cathedral which is across the street. These ruins were originally a 2 storey house that had some important historical events happen here. One of these was that King Hakon of Norway died inside these walls after an unsuccessful battle with the Scots in 1263.

Here are the remnants of the Bishop's Palace:

The Earl's Palace was built later in 1606 by Patrick, Earl of Orkney. This was a bigger more elaborate palace that featured huge fireplaces and windows. It also incorporated the Bishop's Palace into the building making a larger complex.

Imagine what they cooked in this kitchen fireplace? In the second picture Steve and I are standing in the fireplace and looking up the smokestack. It's hard to tell but it is multiple storeys high!

Here are a few more photos from the inside and outside of these beautiful ruins:

Our next stop was St. Magnus’ Cathedral. This is the northernmost cathedral in the United Kingdom. Work on this Cathedral started in 1137 and it is named after St. Magnus who was the co-ruler of Orkney when it belonged to Scandinavia. His remains are interned in one of the pillars of the cathedral.

Fun fact: It is said that Magnus was first buried where he fell (after being executed) and the rocky area around his grave miraculously became a green field!

This was a very different cathedral than any I have ever seen. I couldn’t believe the size of it (ENORMOUS!) for such a small place. Just for reference look at how big the cathedral looks from the water as we sail away!

It was also built out of red and yellow sandstone which gave the blocks an interesting colour. The pillars and decorations looked much different than any other cathedral I’ve seen.

It also had an interesting series of panels describing St. Magnus’ (the namesake) life and how the cathedral came to be. I can’t remember exactly where but I read that they considered the Magnus’ followers a cult of some sort. I need to research this a bit more but I believe it must have something to do with the Christian Church and the Norse Pagan gods not mixing well together.

One more fun fact! After Orkney became part of Scotland (as part of a dowry!) the cathedral was given to the inhabitants of Kirkwall by King James III in 1486.

After the church we walked a bit more and then headed back to the ship for another lovely evening.

I was thrilled to have a whole highland band come to play for us as we got ready to sail away to our next port.

More food, entertainment and general relaxation was greatly enjoyed by both of us this evening!