Europe
Scotland
Kirkwall
Cathedral
St Magnus Cathedral
Name:St Magnus Cathedral
Construction period:1137–15th century
Founder:Earl Rognvald Kali Kolsson
Architectural style:Romanesque
Architect:unknown
Highest structure:Crossing tower (approx. 50 metres high)
Building material:Primarily red and yellow sandstone
Current denomination:Church of Scotland (Presbyterian)

25 Fascinating Facts about St Magnus Cathedral

 

  1. Location: St Magnus Cathedral stands at the heart of Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkney Islands, about 16 kilometres north of the Scottish mainland coast. The archipelago lies between the North Sea and the Atlantic and includes around 70 islands, about 20 of which are permanently inhabited. Right beside the cathedral you’ll find the medieval Bishop’s Palace, the Earl’s Palace and the Orkney Museum.
  2. Significance: St Magnus Cathedral is widely regarded as the most important medieval building in northern Scotland and, for its striking presence, is often called the “Light of the North”. It is the northernmost cathedral in Great Britain and has shaped Kirkwall’s skyline since the 12th century. As one of the few Scottish cathedrals that still preserves largely medieval fabric, it holds a distinctive place in the nation’s church architecture.
  3. Historical context: St Magnus Cathedral is named after Magnus Erlendsson, a Viking earl who ruled Orkney alongside his cousin Haakon Paulsson in the early 12th century. From the late 9th century, the islands belonged to the Kingdom of Norway, which deliberately expanded its influence across the North Sea. Local earls governed on the king’s behalf, and from the 10th century onward Christianity became increasingly established across the Scandinavian world.
  4. The escalation: After the death of their grandfather Thorfinn Sigurdsson, both Magnus and Haakon laid claim to Orkney. At first, the Norwegian king Sigurd installed Haakon alone, but later granted Magnus a share in the rule as co-ruler. While Magnus was seen as devout and peace-minded, Haakon was ambitious and ready for conflict, and tensions between them steadily escalated.
  5. Dramatic death: Hoping to end their power struggle, Magnus and Haakon agreed to meet on the island of Egilsay, each arriving with only 2 ships. Magnus kept his word, but Haakon turned up with 8 ships, seized his cousin and had him sentenced to death. According to tradition, Magnus was killed by an axe blow to the head while kneeling in prayer and asking for mercy for those about to kill him.
  6. Miracles and canonisation: Legend says the rocky ground at the execution site suddenly turned into rich green grass. Many contemporaries took this as an early sign of divine favour, and further miraculous healings were reported at his grave in Birsay. These stories led to Magnus being canonised around 1135, and St Magnus’s Day is still observed on Orkney on 16 April.
  7. Miraculous healing of a sceptical bishop: According to tradition, a bishop named William, who openly mocked Magnus’s sainthood and questioned his miracles, suddenly lost his sight. In despair, he travelled to the saint’s grave in Birsay around 1130 and humbly asked for forgiveness. Shortly afterwards, he is said to have miraculously regained his eyesight, as recounted in the Magnus Saga.
  8. Building history: Construction of St Magnus Cathedral began in 1137 on the initiative of Earl Rognvald Kali Kolsson, who sought to create a worthy monument to his uncle Magnus. To achieve this, he brought skilled stonemasons and master builders from England. The cathedral was only completed in the 15th century, reflecting its long and complex building history.
  9. Gift to the townspeople: Until the second half of the 15th century, Orkney formally belonged to the Norwegian Crown, then ruled by Christian I in personal union with Denmark. In 1468 and 1469, the islands were pledged to Scotland as security for a royal dowry linked to the marriage of his daughter Margaret of Denmark to James III of Scotland, which was never fully paid. Against this backdrop, James III confirmed by charter in 1486 that St Magnus Cathedral was transferred into the ownership of the people of Kirkwall, meaning it still belongs neither to the Church nor to the state, but is administered by the town itself.
  10. Reformation: With the Scottish Reformation of 1560, Protestantism took hold and many Catholic practices, including the veneration of saints, were officially rejected. As a church dedicated to a local saint and once home to his relics, St Magnus Cathedral could easily have become a target for religious destruction. Thanks to its strong ties to the local community and its remote location, it survived largely unscathed and today serves as a parish church of the Church of Scotland, while still being traditionally referred to as a cathedral.
  11. Witch trials in the cathedral: Between 1594 and 1708, numerous alleged witches were imprisoned and interrogated in Marwick’s Houl, a cell like space near the south transept of St Magnus Cathedral. Many of the accused, mostly women, were tortured into making confessions and then publicly executed on the outskirts of Kirkwall. One of the most notorious victims was Allison Balfour, who was accused of witchcraft in 1594 and forced to confess through extreme torture, during which her husband and children were also abused, and despite later publicly retracting her confession and stating she had spoken only out of fear, she was executed.
  12. Uprising of 1614: In 1614, Orkney was shaken by an armed uprising led by supporters of Robert Stewart against the growing influence of the Scottish Crown. The rebels seized the Bishop’s Palace and barricaded themselves inside St Magnus Cathedral. Government forces even considered destroying the church, but the intervention of Bishop James Law led to negotiations that persuaded the rebels to surrender, leaving the cathedral unharmed.
  13. Horses stabled in the nave: In the early 1650s, during the English Civil Wars, soldiers under Oliver Cromwell occupied Orkney and at times used St Magnus Cathedral as both living quarters and a stable. Parts of the nave housed horses, which were tethered to the columns, while hay was stored inside the building. Several iron rings still embedded in the pillars today bear silent witness to this extraordinary episode.
  14. Lightning strike in the 17th century: In 1671, lightning struck the cathedral’s wooden spire, setting it ablaze and destroying it completely. The tower was then given a lower, pyramid shaped roof that defined Kirkwall’s skyline for more than 200 years. Only in the early 20th century was this interim structure replaced by the tall, copper clad tower that stands today.
  15. Restoration in the 1920s: What now appears as bare stone was, in the Middle Ages, plastered and richly painted with patterns, scenes and ornament typical of Romanesque churches. During restoration work in the 1920s, these traces of colour were unintentionally destroyed when the walls were scrubbed with wire brushes and caustic lye. Believing exposed stone to be more authentic, restorers irreversibly removed a vital element of the cathedral’s original interior atmosphere.
  16. Architecture: St Magnus Cathedral is a striking example of Romanesque architecture, characterised by massive walls, robust round columns and small rounded windows, with its oldest sections dating back to the 12th century. Much of its distinctive appearance comes from the deliberate alternation of red sandstone from Kirkwall and yellow sandstone from the island of Eday. At the same time, clear Gothic additions reflect centuries of construction and adaptation. This layered blend of styles is evident in the ground plan and in countless architectural details, making the cathedral especially expressive.
  17. West window for an anniversary: To mark its 850th anniversary, St Magnus Cathedral received a new west window in 1987, intentionally adding a contemporary artistic dimension to its medieval fabric. Designed by the Scottish artist Crear McCartney, the window weaves core Christian symbols such as the cross, the dove and the emblems of the Evangelists together with motifs drawn from Orkney’s history and landscape. References to the Viking Age and prehistoric monuments sit alongside expressions of local identity, and its unveiling in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II underscored that the cathedral is not a static relic, but a living building that continues to evolve with care.
  18. Relics of St Magnus: In 1919, restoration work on a pillar inside St Magnus Cathedral led to the discovery of human bones in a wooden box, including a skull bearing clear cut marks that align with medieval accounts of Earl Magnus’s death. The remains were soon interpreted as possible relics of St Magnus, whose bones were likely concealed after the Reformation to protect them from destruction. The bones were later reburied within the cathedral, while the box itself is now kept in the Orkney Museum. A scientific study published in 2025 dated the wood of the box to between 1034 and 1168, firmly placing the find within Magnus’s lifetime.
  19. Bones of Rognvald: Rognvald Kali Kolsson was the Norwegian Earl of Orkney and the principal force behind the construction of St Magnus Cathedral. After his death, he too came to be revered as a saint. According to tradition, his remains were initially buried in the cathedral and later concealed within a pillar of the choir, a claim supported by historical sources and archaeological context, though not confirmed by modern scientific analysis.
  20. Memorial tablets and gravestones: In the 17th century, burials beneath the floor of St Magnus Cathedral were permitted for a fee, resulting in numerous graves inside the building. Inscribed grave slabs bearing names, dates and symbols were placed above these burials and were often moved to the interior walls over time to preserve them. As a result, many historic gravestones are visible inside the cathedral today, while some of the burials themselves still lie beneath the floor.
  21. Mort Brod: In the north aisle of the nave hangs a square wooden panel from the 17th century, positioned like a suspended gravestone directly above a burial in the floor. It depicts Death as a shrouded skeleton holding an hourglass and a grave spade, symbols of passing time and the open grave. A rhyming inscription names the Kirkwall glazier Robert Nicolson and explains that his body rests beneath the panel, while the phrase “Memento mori” delivers a stark reminder of human mortality.
  22. Graveyard: With around 6,000 burials, the graveyard surrounding St Magnus Cathedral is among the oldest and most densely used burial grounds on Orkney. Over the centuries, graves were reused repeatedly, while many headstones were damaged or lost through weathering and the passage of time. Particularly notable are the grave of Arctic explorer John Rae and a headstone bearing the impossible date “30 February”, a historical curiosity that continues to spark debate.
  23. Memorial to Dr John Rae: Dr John Rae was an Arctic explorer from Orkney who, in the 1850s, uncovered crucial evidence about the fate of the lost Franklin Expedition. During his travels, he spoke with Inuit witnesses who described stranded crew members and handed over personal belongings, allowing the events to be reconstructed for the first time. Shortly after Rae’s death, a memorial in his honour was unveiled in St Magnus Cathedral in 1894, depicting him as a life size recumbent figure in Arctic clothing with a book and a rifle, symbolising his life and work in the polar regions.
  24. Memorial plaque and ship’s bell of HMS Royal Oak: On 14 October 1939, the British battleship HMS Royal Oak was attacked by a German submarine and sank within a short time, killing more than 800 crew members. The loss ranks among the most devastating British naval disasters at the beginning of the Second World War and caused widespread shock. Inside St Magnus Cathedral, a memorial plaque accompanied by the ship’s original bell commemorates the victims, alongside a Book of Remembrance listing all those who died.
  25. St Magnus Way: Opened in 2017, the St Magnus Way is a modern pilgrimage route on Orkney that connects the key places associated with the story of St Magnus. It begins on Egilsay and leads across the Orkney Mainland to St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. Covering about 58 miles, or roughly 93 kilometres, the route is divided into 6 stages and combines historic sites with varied coastal scenery and landscapes across the island interior.