{"id":123,"date":"2026-09-15T19:19:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/?p=123"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:46:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:46:41","slug":"kirkwall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/?p=123","title":{"rendered":"Orkney Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kirkwall and St. Magnus Cathedral<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In which Lis arrives in Orkney and practices<\/em> the discipline of non-consumption.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Off the ferry at 23:00, in the dark, and I got the one bus driver who, contrary to everything I’d read, could not direct me to the hostel. In fact, he dropped me at the wrong stop and gave me bad directions. But I found my way soon enough and my room key was left in an envelope for me at reception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the morning I set off to find coffee, breakfast, and to explore the historic city centre of Kirkwall. One great thing about Orkney is the strong culture of art and craft. You can’t turn around without bumping into amazing handmade and beautifully designed artisan products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I very quickly realised that my travels with one backpack are going to teach me the discipline of not buying every beautiful thing I see. Easier said than done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon I came to St. Magnus Cathedral. It’s an incredible building made of two colours of sandstone, by medieval stonemasons in the 1100s. The workmanship and contrasting colours are stunning. I hopped over to the St. Magnus Centre around the corner to get a bit of history and context for my explorations – and because I was about to start my first pilgrimage on the St. Magnus Way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Memento mori in many places throughout. I neglected to take a picture of the carved stone markers with a particularly distinctive and beautiful script – later on Westray I saw two similar ones, thought to be done by the same stonemason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The stonemasons left their marks on the stones. Little did I know how recent these 900-year old markings would seem after a few days on Orkney…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More arctic connections here on Orkney: there were many arctic explorers and Hudson Bay men from Orkney, this was a spot to fill up on (delicious) fresh water before crossing the Atlantic, and John Rae, from Orkney, was the one who brought back the news about the missing Franklin expedition. They didn’t really want to hear about the embarrassing and gory (cannibalism) details and he was disgraced. [Possible connection – an old friend of my dad’s from Delta had the same last name and was from Orkney – maybe a relative?]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kirkwall also has an incredible museum, where I got a crash course in the history, spanning the neolithic, the Picts, Vikings, and then the modern stuff (the last 800 or so years).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That afternoon I caught the bus to Tingwall to catch a ferry to Rousay, a nearby island, and my home for the next three nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I’d forgotten to do was pick up groceries… And Rousay’s only store was closed. A lovely friend I met at the hostel shared her supper with me and I made plans to hop back over to Kirkwall on the ferry the next day for provisions. You’d think a girl who’s been stuck in remote communities in the Arctic and Labrador would remember to bring food and never count on a store or restaurant being available…<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirkwall and St. Magnus Cathedral In which Lis arrives in Orkney and practices the discipline of non-consumption. Off the ferry at 23:00, in the dark, and I got the one bus driver who, contrary to everything I’d read, could not direct me to the hostel. In fact, he dropped me at the wrong stop and gave me bad directions. But I found my way soon enough and my room key was left in an envelope for me at reception. In the morning I set off to find coffee, breakfast, and to explore the historic city centre of Kirkwall. One great thing about Orkney is the strong culture of art and craft. You can’t turn around without bumping into amazing handmade and beautifully designed artisan products. I very quickly realised that my travels with one backpack are going to teach me the discipline of not buying every beautiful thing I see. Easier said than done! Soon I came to St. Magnus Cathedral. It’s an incredible building made of two colours of sandstone, by medieval stonemasons in the 1100s. The workmanship and contrasting colours are stunning. I hopped over to the St. Magnus Centre around the corner to get a bit of history and context for my explorations – and because I was about to start my first pilgrimage on the St. Magnus Way. Memento mori in many places throughout. I neglected to take a picture of the carved stone markers with a particularly distinctive and beautiful script – later on Westray I saw two similar ones, thought to be done by the same stonemason. The stonemasons left their marks on the stones. Little did I know how recent these 900-year old markings would seem after a few days on Orkney… More arctic connections here on Orkney: there were many arctic explorers and Hudson Bay men from Orkney, this was a spot to fill up on (delicious) fresh water before crossing the Atlantic, and John Rae, from Orkney, was the one who brought back the news about the missing Franklin expedition. They didn’t really want to hear about the embarrassing and gory (cannibalism) details and he was disgraced. [Possible connection – an old friend of my dad’s from Delta had the same last name and was from Orkney – maybe a relative?] Kirkwall also has an incredible museum, where I got a crash course in the history, spanning the neolithic, the Picts, Vikings, and then the modern stuff (the last 800 or so years). That afternoon I caught the bus to Tingwall to catch a ferry to Rousay, a nearby island, and my home for the next three nights. What I’d forgotten to do was pick up groceries… And Rousay’s only store was closed. A lovely friend I met at the hostel shared her supper with me and I made plans to hop back over to Kirkwall on the ferry the next day for provisions. You’d think a girl who’s been stuck in remote communities in the Arctic and Labrador would remember to bring food and never count on a store or restaurant being available…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[18,17],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-le-peregrinazioni-di-lis","tag-kirkwall","tag-st-magnus-cathedral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eskerhazy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}