{"id":1456,"date":"2017-10-14T08:30:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T07:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1456"},"modified":"2017-10-23T11:50:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T10:50:08","slug":"brough-of-birsay-orkney-mainland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1456","title":{"rendered":"Brough of Birsay, Orkney Mainland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=840,width=1230,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/>\nFirst published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Birsay.jpg');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4370\/36993527766_6bfe3fbbd5.jpg\" title='Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4370\/36993527766_6bfe3fbbd5_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4368\/36346529214_735ed8038a.jpg\" title='causeway to the Brough of Birsay 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4368\/36346529214_735ed8038a_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4402\/36993526526_a26f4b0665.jpg\" title='Earl&#039;s Palace, Birsay 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4402\/36993526526_a26f4b0665_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4340\/37183124995_9202ef7457.jpg\" title='looking landward from the Brough of Birsay 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4340\/37183124995_9202ef7457_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4432\/36993529816_44691345be.jpg\" title='geo or inlet, Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4432\/36993529816_44691345be_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4397\/37183127545_122c1c2796.jpg\" title='memorial cross, Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4397\/37183127545_122c1c2796_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4372\/36993532396_bc7096c23e.jpg\" title='lighthouse, Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4372\/36993532396_bc7096c23e_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4339\/37040991361_b98b82a114.jpg\" title='Pictish houses, Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4339\/37040991361_b98b82a114_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4394\/36993536046_e3e00665f1.jpg\" title='looking landward from the Brough of Birsay 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4394\/36993536046_e3e00665f1_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4420\/36346523414_e80b56a5eb.jpg\" title='Earl&#039;s Palace from the Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4420\/36346523414_e80b56a5eb_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4392\/36346525424_fdc715566b.jpg\" title='causeway to the Brough of Birsay 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4392\/36346525424_fdc715566b_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4354\/36346527184_2d3ff74848.jpg\" title='rock plates, Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4354\/36346527184_2d3ff74848_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4358\/36346530924_eea1a07893.jpg\" title='Earl&#039;s Palace, Birsay 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4358\/36346530924_eea1a07893_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4337\/36346533124_b028a24f14.jpg\" title='shores of Birsay Bay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4337\/36346533124_b028a24f14_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4369\/36346535144_f8314e93de.jpg\" title='shores of Birsay Bay, looking to Brough of Birsay'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4369\/36346535144_f8314e93de_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1456\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=1456','pwin','height=700,width=1000,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');\" title=\"Click for printable version\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Walks\/print.gif\" align=\"right\"><\/a><br \/>\nThe Earl\u2019s Palace frowns out over the Bay of Birsay, strong, stark and harsh, a fortress reflecting everything that\u2019s known about the man who created it.<br \/>\nRobert Stewart, Earl of Orkney and illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland, was a high-handed and brutal ruler of the Orkney isles. The great stronghold he built with forced labour in the 1570s stands in ruin at the outermost tip of Orkney Mainland, still massively impressive with its jagged gables and tall dark chimneys stacks.<br \/>\nLooking down from the green trackway behind the Earl\u2019s Palace at the jumble of buildings and the crashing sea beyond, I pictured these wretched sprigs of the Stewart family tree. Nasty Earl Robert died in his bed, but his even nastier son Patrick \u2013 \u2018Black Patie\u2019 by nickname \u2013 and rather pathetic grandson Robert both came to bad ends at the hands of the king\u2019s executioner. Those were wild times, and there were few places wilder than the Orkney archipelago, remote in its northern seas.<br \/>\nThe trackway led up onto dark sandstone cliffs, where the wind whipped the short turf and whirled the fulmars past in stiff-winged flight. I put my head down and trudged north, with the Earl\u2019s Palace looming inland.<br \/>\nLuckily Orkney has known better men than Black Patie and Earl Robert. Past the ruin of their citadel runs a newly opened pilgrimage route, St Magnus Way, a 55-mile trek that celebrates Orkney\u2019s much-loved local saint and miracle worker. It was in Birsay\u2019s ancient kirk that Magnus Erlendsson\u2019s bones resided after his martyrdom 900 years ago. They were soon translated to their final resting place in Kirkwall\u2019s St Magnus Cathedral, terminus of the new pilgrim path.<br \/>\nAt the outer end of the road from Birsay lies the zigzag causeway to the tidal island of the Brough of Birsay. The sea was just receding from the isthmus as I crossed it, the ebbing water forming tiny sucking maelstroms beside the causeway.<br \/>\nThe landward slope of the Brough of Birsay presents a fabulous jumble of stone walls, half-formed windows and house foundations. Pictish settlers were succeeded by Norse ones between 600 and 1200 AD, each wave of islanders building on top of its predecessors\u2019 dwellings. Pictish round houses, Norse long ones and a tiny compact Romanesque church can all be made out.<br \/>\nI climbed the back of the island to the little castellated lighthouse, and looked out from the puffin-burrowed summit. Tall cliffs fell sheer into the sea on all sides, and on the northern horizon other islands floated in evening light, as grey and distant as breaching whales.<br \/>\nStart: Earl\u2019s Palace car park, Birsay, Orkney Mainland KW17 2LX (HY248277)<br \/>\nGetting there: Bus 7 (Kirkwall-Birsay).<br \/>\nRoad \u2013 From Kirkwall, A965 through Finstown; in 1 mile, right on A986 through Dounby; from Twatt, A967, A966 to Birsay.<\/p>\n<p>Walk (4\u00bd miles; easy; OS Explorer 463): From car park, left up road. Cross Burn of Boardhouse; follow road past Birsay Bay Tearoom, then grass track to cemetery and road (248268). Right; in 300m, at left bend, right (245268). Follow St Magnus Way (waymark) north down track to rejoin road (248275). Left, following road to causeway (242284). Cross to Brough of Birsay; walk round island; return across causeway.<br \/>\nConditions: Causeway is open for 2 hours either side of low tide. Check times &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/magicseaweed.com\">magicseaweed.com<\/a><br \/>\nLunch: Birsay Bay Tearooms (01856-721399; <a href=\"http:\/\/birsaybaytearooms.co.uk\">birsaybaytearooms.co.uk<\/a>) &#8211; check for opening times<br \/>\nAccommodation: Ferry Inn, 10 John Street, Stromness KW16 3AD (01856-850280; ferryinn.com; 20 mins drive) \u2013 friendly, lively, clean<br \/>\nSt Magnus Way: stmagnusway.com<br \/>\nInfo: <a href=\"http:\/\/visitorkney.com\">visitorkney.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/visitscotland.com\">visitscotland.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/satmap.com\">satmap.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/ramblers.org.uk\">ramblers.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Earl&#8217;s Palace frowns out over the Bay of Birsay, strong, stark and harsh, a fortress reflecting everything that\u2019s known about the man who created it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}