Egilsay of St Magnus

I was hoping to get ashore on Egilsay last month to get some good photos of the round tower church of St Magnus. Magnus was martyred on Egilsay around the year 1117. See this Orkneyjar link for the complete story of St Magnus.

I had visited Egilsay once before, back in 1990. But unfortunately (for me) the tower was encased in scaffolding, which did not make for good photos. (See the Nov 21, 2013 post.) So last month I was looking forward to returning to get better photos, but it was not to be.

Church of St Magnus - 1990

On June 20 we left the Bay of Ham (Rousay), where we'd anchored the previous night. Everyone was looking forward to seeing Egilsay. We slowly approached the pier on its west side, hoping to tie up, or anchor nearby. But a 12 knot westerly was blowing. With no sign of it abating, all thoughts of getting ashore had to be abandoned. We were disappointed, but that's how it goes when you're afloat, you have to go with the flow. And so we turned north to set our sights on Westray. Below are photos of the round tower that I took from the boat. I hope to return someday to try again.

St Magnus Church - 2014

St Magnus Church - 2014