St Magnus Cathedral - The Building

The Building

The Romanesque Cathedral begun in 1137 has fine examples of Norman architecture, attributed to English masons who may have worked on Durham Cathedral. The masonry uses red sandstone quarried near Kirkwall and yellow sandstone from the island of Eday, often in alternating courses or in a chequerboard pattern to give a polychrome effect.

As completed during the 12th century, the original Cathedral had three aisled bays to the chancel with the bay at the east end shorter, and apsed in a similar way to the original apse at Durham, a transept with single east chapel, and eight bays to the nave as at Durham and Dunfermline Abbey. When the Cathedral was ready for consecration the relics of St. Magnus were enshrined in it. In 1917 a hidden cavity in a column was found, containing a box with bones including a skull showing a wound consistent with a blow from an axe. The original Cathedral comprises the choir of today's church.

In the late 12th and early 13th century the building was extended to the east with vaulting throughout, and in the late 14th century the present lower front was joined to the rest of the building. These later elements introduced the Gothic style with pointed arches.

In 1468, when Orkney was annexed for Scotland by King James III, St. Magnus Cathedral came under the control of the Archbishop of St. Andrews and the Bishops of Aberdeen and Orkney were subsequently of Scots rather than Scandinavian origin. Most notable amongst them was Bishop Robert Reid, who presided at St. Magnus from 1541 to 1558.

The Protestant Reformation in 1560 had a less dramatic effect on St. Magnus Cathedral than in some other parts of Scotland, but the church had a narrow escape in 1614. Government forces suppressing a rebellion, had besieged and destroyed Kirkwall Castle and intended to destroy St. Magnus Cathedral after rebels had hidden inside. The Bishop of the day intervened to prevent them for carrying out this plan.

Major work was undertaken on the Cathedral in the early 20th century; this included replacing the dumpy slated pyramid atop the tower with a taller spire clothed in copper sheeting. As a result today's Cathedral looks much more as it did until its original spire was struck by lightning in the late 17th century. Restoration and renovation work on the building continues, with increased urgency since it was discovered in the 1970s that the west end of the Cathedral was in danger of collapsing away from the remainder of the structure. Other work has progressed further, and to celebrate its 850th anniversary in 1987 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom unveiled a magnificent new west window. St. Magnus is the only wholly mediaeval Scottish Cathedral, and one of the best-preserved buildings of the era in Britain.