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

Northern Isles - Egilsay

On my trip to Orkney one of my must-see places was Egilsay. Two things drew me to the island: the martyrdom of St Magnus in the year 1116, and the 12 century church of St Magnus with its round tower. I was pretty naive back then, thinking I could just drive to the ferry terminal at Tingwall and await the next boat to Egilsay. They looked at me like I was from Mars. They said there was no on-demand sailing to Egilsay, and there was also not a lot of demand for regular sailings (this was 1990). But they did manage to get us to Rousay, where we had a 2-hour wait to get on a boat that was going to Egilsay. This gave us time to see some of the chambered-cairns that lie near where the ferry lands on Rousay.

When we finally got over to Egilsay we had two wonderful hours on the island. Egilsay is a beautiful, and quiet island. After finding the monument that marks where St Magnus was killed (first photo), we explored St Magnus' Church and round tower (second and third photo). The photos are marred a bit by the scaffolding that surrounded the tower, so I hope to return to Egilsay in June to get some better photos.

Monument where St Magnus was killed in 1116

St Magnus' Church, Egilsay

Scaffolding on the Round Tower

Looking up through the round tower

When time came to leave Egilsay the tide had dropped, so we had to descend the pier-ladders to get down to the small ferry. On the ride back to Tingwall the only passengers were my wife and I, and the Egilsay teacher returning to her home on Mainland Orkney.

Egilsay Ferry

My wife descending the ladder on Egilsay Pier