Wanderings on Sanday - St Edward's

Over the years I've visited Canna about eight times. On three of those occasions I made the long walk to Sanday to see if I could get inside St Edward's. Each time the church turned out to be locked. While on Canna again this August, I thought I'd make another try at getting inside. To my surprise, the church wasn't locked.

The church was in use from 1890 to 1963, and then for the next 35 years was neglected and vandalized. If you ever have the chance to go inside St Edward's, there is a book you should read first: Restoring Canna's Chapel, by Alasdair Ross McKerlich (2007). It is a fascinating book that details the restoration work done from 1998 to 2001. The author's company did the work, and his book is highly critical of the architects running the project; especially of the plaster mix they specified, one not appropriate to the climate and the porous stonework. Water ingress had been a problem since the church was built in 1890, and continues to this day.

I believe I met Mr. McKerlich in 1998. It was a Saturday, August 1, and I was on my way to Rum on MV Loch Mor (see book 1, chapter 25). We departed from Mallaig at 5 am, and the first stop was Canna. Aboard was a builder on his way to Canna - unfortunately I did not write down his name. Here's an excerpt from my journal for that day:

I met a builder this morning on his way to examine the old church (St Edward's). He said there was a project going on to refurbish it as a visitor centre, and was investigating how the locals got materials to the island. Will have to come back in a few years and see what they've done.

As it turned out, it took me more than a few years to see what they did, it took seventeen years. The work started in 1999, and when finished there was a grand opening ceremony with Princess Anne on June 5, 2001.

The church with construction debris

Since 2001 there have been several other efforts to stem the water ingress, none very successful. And at the end of Restoring Canna's Chapel there is a sad scene, when the author, who'd put so much time and effort into the restoration, returned in 2005 to find the church vandalized and stripped bare of furnishings.

Below are some photos of the interior of St Edward's I took on August 9, 2015. It was a sad sight. As you can see, even after some two million dollars of work, the walls are severely damaged by water ingress. The church was restored with the intent of being a study centre for all the Gaelic poems, songs, and books collected by John Lorne Campbell and his wife, Margaret Fay Shaw. But I doubt if that will ever happen.

Handicapped accessible bathroom - note the water damage

Steps to the upper floors

Rose Window and more water damage

Bunks on the first floor

More bunks

The original cross that stood atop the bell tower - what's on the tower now is a replica of this one

St Edward's today

Wanderings on Sanday - Dun Beg

I love the old sailing journals that recount adventures in the Hebrides in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of my favourites is Log of the Blue Dragon by CC Lynam (1908). It is illustrated with photographs and drawings of various locations in the Hebrides, and among them is this drawing of Dun Beg, a tall sea-stack off the island of Sanday (near Canna).

Drawing of Dun Beg from Log of the Blue Dragon (1908)

Athough I'd been to Canna numerous times, I'd never had the time to walk out to see Dun Beg; for to get there requires a six-mile round trip walk from Canna Pier. But last month I was able to get there by a much shorter route. I was on the ship Halmar Bjorge, anchored in Canna Harbour, when the skipper, Tim Wear, offered to run me across in the RIB to Sanday. From there it was only a mile to Dun Beg. Here are a few photos of Dun Beg and its sister stack Dun Mor.

Dun Beg - 1

Dun Beg - 2

Dun Beg - 3

Dun Mor

Dun Beg from the sea

Quoyness Chambered Cairn - Sanday

Most visitors to Orkney pay a visit to the great chambered cairn of Maes Howe. It is an amazing thing to see. But due to the large number of visitors you have to book ahead to see it; and when you get there your visit is highly regimented. A tour guide herds everyone inside, and then proceeds to give an informative talk on the tomb. No photos are allowed, and once the talk is over everyone is herded back out. Fortunately there are several other spectacular chambered cairns on Orkney that are accessible to travelers who, like me, relish seeing sites like this without the crowds.

I previously described a visit to the massive 'long' chambered cairn on Holm of Papa (see July 6 post). Another impressive cairn I visited last month was Quoyness Chambered Cairn on Sanday.

Quoyness is a smaller version of Maes Howe. As with Maes Howe, the cairn dates to around 3000 BC, and you enter it by crawling along a narrow passageway.

After crawling through the 30-foot-long passage I came to the central chamber. Even standing up I could not touch the roof, as it is 12 feet high.

There are six small side chambers, and I crawled into one to take a close look. One of my disappointments when I saw Maes Howe was that they do not allow visitors to enter the side chambers.

Spending some time alone in this ancient sacred place was a privilege. See this Orkneyjar link for more information on the Quoyness cairn. After seeing it I spent an hour exploring the Elsness Peninsula and the nearby white-sand beach of Sty Wick (the last two photos).

Next time I'll end my Orkney posts with a visit to another, and much more recent tomb. The 1893 grave of one of my heroes: the Orcadian John Rae.