September 10, 2016: We explore Kirkwall

From my travel journal dated September 11, 2016:

"Spent yesterday in Kirkwall ... St. Magnus Cathedral ... 

 Work on the Romanesque-style cathedral began in 1137.

They had put the bones of many people, including Robert Stewart, into a common grave just outside the cathedral walls, where there is now a green space. Robert Stewart and all the Stewarts are not well-liked.  

 The unmarked common grave looks spookier through the fence

Lots of references inside to Richens. I photographed the tombstones.

The grave marker of Robert Richen, my 8th great-grandfather.

Stained glass window in St. Magnus Cathedral

Lunch at the cafe across the road from the cathedral... salads! Yay. I bought a tea towel with puffins on it. 

Went to the museum and got the time-line sorted out re settlements, and peoples, and dates. Then to the library archives where I found a book on the Richens, some of which the librarian photocopied(3£).

Then back on the bus to Stromness. He stopped as soon as we rang the bell so we did not have far to walk."

My travel journal doesn't really do justice to our day in Kirkwall. I wanted to go there to investigate my family connection to Orkneyjar, its name when reflecting its Norwegian roots. It was given to Scotland  by the king of Denmark and Norway as part of a dowry for his daughter Margaret, who married James III of Scotland in July 1469. The islands were never redeemed by him. 

Orcadians to this day feel attached to Scandinavia. In fact when we left Orkney Mainland, we were asked if we were going back to Scotland. Gaelic (on the road signs, along with English, in other parts of Scotland) is seen as unnecessary in Orkney; as Carrie of See Orkney told us, "No one speaks it here."

At the time we visited, I thought I was directly related to the notorious Robert Stewart, scion of  James Stewart V of Scotland and his mistress Euphemia Elphinstone, and Robert's equally despised son Patrick. Thankfully, the notorious Robert is merely the second great-grandfather of my seventh great-uncle, Robert Richan (1707-1791), husband to a Stewart descendant, Jane Stewart of Eday.

However, seventh great-uncle Robert Richen and I share another Robert Richen in common, his paternal great-grandfather and my eighth great-grandfather, who is remembered on the gravestone pictured above. Born in 1620, Robert was a well-off merchant in Kirkwall, making his living as a litster or dyer.  In the late 1660s, in addition to other property,  he bought two double dwellings, "two sclaitt ruifed and twa theack ruifed." The inscription on his tombstone refers to him as "Merchand - Burgess of Kirkwall, who departed this lyf 1 Decr 1679." (Source: The Richans of Orkney 1983)

Time passed and vowels changed and my fifth great-grandfather, Captain John Richan, born in Kirkwall in 1756, arrived in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia about 1788. He died there in 1807.  But who is his father? He is named "son of John Richan" in one book about Yarmouth. In another account, his father is said to have been  Captain William Richan, descendant of those nasty Stewarts via his mother's side. 

This Captain William (1741-1829) was a colourful figure (sea captain, decorated naval commander, smuggler and husband of a profligate wife who pretty much bankrupted him). I wish he were my direct relative for the stories about him. Alas, I did some math once we returned from our trip and discovered he would have become John's father at the age of 15, not an impossibility in those days (or any days), but John Richan would have been his fifth consecutive son. Not likely, even with his virile Viking blood (the Richen's originally hailed from Denmark in the mid-900's), would he have been a father before age 10. 

There is another William Richen in Kirkwell, about whom I know very little aside from his date of birth in 1713. I wonder if he is the father of my Yarmouth relative. Did the writer of the family chronicle get the two William Richens confused or did John Richan's descendants intentionally re-write the family history? I shall likely never know.

John Richan ran a pub called variously the Vengeance, the Olive Branch and the Phoenix over the years. He had been a midshipman on board the "Vengeance,"  and outside his tavern, he painted a sign showing the ship with it guns blazing,  "a masterpiece according to his son (yet another William Richan 1797-1875) in a story on oral history in the Yarmouth Herald dated 1902 . The building was later used as a courthouse, jail and public meeting place. It was situated at the corner of Main St. and Marshall Lane, where a plaque was placed by the Yarmouth County Historical Society in 1998 (according to a photo in Africa's Children:a History of Blacks in Yarmouth NS.) 

So I have come a long way in both time and geography. And taken something of a detour in my account of our trip.It is quite exciting for me to think I walked along streets in Kirwall and Yarmouth traversed by my ancestors.

Anyhow, while we were in Kirkwall, we also walked about inside the ruins of the Bishop's and Earl's palaces, located across the road from the cathedral:

The dreadful Patrick Stewart wanted to build a magnificent complex incorporating the Bishop's palace. Although it is a fine example of renaissance Scottish building, the Earl was not so fine. After a life of apparent unending feuding and general malice, he was executed for treason in 1615. The beheading was apparently delayed for a few days until he learned the Lord's Prayer. (Source:  http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/historicalfigures/patrickstewart/index.html)

While I was in Orkney, I did not reveal what I thought was my relationship to the Stewarts and was so relieved after coming home that it was not a direct relationship at all, just one by marriage: dodged a bullet and  possibly hostile stares on that one. 

The Earl's Palace:  Patrick Stewart Earl of Orkney

  

The much older Bishop's Palace originally looked something like this: 

It was built in the mid-12th century for Bishop William the Old, a friend and crusading companion of the founder of the cathedral.  (Source: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/bishop.htm)

It followed the design for a typical Norwegian palace of the time, with a hall for entertainment and a tower for the bishop's residence.

We spent a couple of hours clambering around the ruins enjoying the lovely sunny day unencumbered by any other visitors.

September 9th: We visit the Italian Chapel

Later in the afternoon, we left the neolithic age far behind and journeyed towards Scapa Flow to see the Italian Chapel at Lambholm. We were rather drowsy and overly full of facts as well as food and almost didn't want to go; however, we did. Carrie, our See Orkney tour guide, said that at this point in the day, she would often be chatting about Orkney history only to look in her rear view mirror to see everyone sound asleep. She said they would try to appear as if they had not missed anything, but they gave themselves away by asking questions about what she had just talked about.

I thought, how rude of them to nod off. However, a short while later, I succumbed to Sleep's beckoning and drifted off. However, when I woke up, I said to Carrie at least I know not to ask any questions, which made her laugh.

It turned out that the chapel was a treat I am glad we didn't miss. It was built during the Second World War. In 1942, about 550 Italian prisoners of war were brought to the Orkneys mainly from North Africa to provide labour for building a causeway to better protect the English Fleet often stationed at nearby Scapa Flow.

In the 18 months that they were in Camp 60, the POW's grew flower and vegetable gardens, and also built concrete walkways,  and constructed a theatre and recreation hut - with three pool tables - built from concrete. Apparently there was a lot of concrete on account of the construction of the causeway. In 1943, the camp commandant and the padre decided a chapel would be a good addition.

Prisoners, including master craftsman Domenico Chiocchetti, set about using found materials to convert two Nissen huts into a place of worship. This is the resulting exterior:

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/italianchapel/

The crucifix shrine, barely visible in the image above, is more visible below.  It was donated by Chiocchetti's hometown the Commune of Moena in 1961. (My source is an intriguing account found at http://s3.spanglefish.com/s/34070/documents/book/italian-chapel-engish.pdf ) Greg is hunched over in the wind, which blew out the rainy weather from earlier in the day.




A prisoner fashioned the image of Christ over the entrance:




Apparently the candle holders in the sanctuary were fashioned from corned beef tins. Another prisoner, Giuseppe Palumbi, a blacksmith by trade, made the delicate rood screen, a task which took him four months to complete:

Chiocchetti and other prisoners created the rest of  interior.The corrugated hut interior was covered in plasterboard.  What appears to be brick and stone is painted - a most convincing  use of  trompe d'oeil. This is the ceiling in the sanctuary, barely visible in my photo above:

 A church in his home town of Moena might have been Chiocchetti's  inspiration for the ceiling:

Images of the four evangelists and of St. France of Assisi were painted to look like stained glass windows: 

The square objects on the wall are depictions of the stations of the cross. Chiocchetti and his wife donated them 20 years later on a return visit in 1964  and  participated, along with 200 Orcadians, in a rededication service.

Outdoors, in what was the centre of the camp, Chiocchetti constructed a statue of St. George and the dragon  - on a base of barbed wire covered with concrete.

Source http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/italianchapel/

Most of the prisoners were moved to Yorkshire, England in 1943, before the construction of the chapel was completed. Chiocchetti stayed behind to finish the concrete baptismal font. The basin is from a vehicle exhaust (according to Wikipedia), and Carrie noted the base is the shock absorber of a truck. The font moves slightly if you touch it gently,

The little chapel is a miracle, as the information photo below suggests. The local  Orcadians promised to maintain the chapel and have done so for the last 70 plus years. Eight surviving  prisoners returned for a 50th anniversary celebration in 1992. Alas, Chiocchetti was too ill to attend (He died in 1999). A special mass, attended by his daughter, was held in 2014  to celebrate its 70th  anniversary. 

Carrie said that for many years you could just walk up to it and enter, but the site was being damaged (either by overuse or deliberate vandalization), and so a ticket booth was built and the area was fenced. It remains a touching  symbol of hope and reconciliation.

September 9th: After lunch, we experience a Broch and a Henge

There are at least 50 brochs in Orkney and, alas, I can't exactly remember which one this is. My best, and likely correct, guess is the Broch of Gurness.

In any event, a broch is a fort. There is some question about who was being defended against. Some said the Romans, but that theory has been debunked by other scholars who say they were built as a result of more localized feuding over scarce land or perhaps just as immense status symbols. 

Most were built between 600 BC and 100 AD; they were conical in shape and could be as high as five to 13 metres. Since no masonry was used, just dry stone, their builders had a high degree of engineering skill. 

The Broch of Gurness, thought to have been erected between 200 BC and 100 BC, was discovered by accident in 1929 by an artist sketching the scenery, when the leg of his stool sank through the turf towards the chamber below. 

There are several dry ditches and ramparts around the broch.

Living quarters were built outside the tower and were also enclosed by the ditch:

Scholars estimate about 40 families lived there.

Upright stones marked the divisions between rooms: 

Each house contained a hearth, stone furniture, cupboards, and apparently a toilet of sorts - likely not the Thomas Crapper variety, however!  

No, not this! (found on Pinterest)

Flat stones were used as flagstones and raised as walls and partitions:

Notice the intriguing white stone in the centre, perhaps used as a grindstone, and the strata of rectangular stones in the wall: 



A ready supply of flat stones for the partitions lay at the nearby shoreline. 

However, erosion is taking its toll here as at other coastal sites:

There appears to have been a rather formal path to the broch:

Over the years, the settlement fell into disuse and was likely partially dismantled over time by other inhabitants of the area looking to use the stones. The houses may have been used by the Picts several centuries later about 500 AD, and still later by the Vikings as a burial mound. Artifacts from both those peoples have been discovered there. Then, after gradually being covered in soil, the site lay undisturbed for a thousand years. 

My source for much of this information: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/brochs/gurness/index.htm

***

Afterwards, we carried on to the Ring of Brodgar, sometimes called a henge, which is a  ring of stones enclosed by a ditch (or two or three) and also embankments. Lacking an embankment, it can't strictly speaking be called a henge. It is very close to the Standing Stones of Stenness and many other ancient ritual sites:  

Source http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/standingstones/stennesscentre.htm

Radiocarbon dating puts it construction close to 2500-2000 BC, making it one of the last neolithic monuments. The stones have been compared to a band of giants lumbering under heavy weight across the landscape:

Source: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/brodgar/index.html

Our appreciation for its mystery was somewhat hampered by the work underway to conserve the site. The snow fence is not part of the ancient henge:

As the sign notes, we followed the temporary path:



Carrie, our See Orkney tour guide, explained the details of the work going on:

It was rainy, so we avoided the muddy pathways. Greg is making his way across the turf: 

Nevertheless, the sheer size of the stones  was impressive and since the area around them is thought to have been a marshy fen at the time they were erected, the effort expended to transport and raise them is mind-boggling:

I wonder if there was heather 3,000 years ago!

Unlike the Standing Stones of Stenness, which in 1814 a tenant farmer began to knock over when he got tired of ploughing around them, the stones in this ring seem to have toppled for other reasons:

The sign explains how lightning cracked one of the stones: 

Incidentally the insensitive farmer was prevented from destroying any more of the Stenness stones and narrowly escaped having his house burnt down by his angry neighbours.

In 1906, the two henges (and other pre-historic sites) were taken into care by the government, the sites protected and studied and many fallen stones restored to their sockets.

(My source for much of this information: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/index.html)

Our tour of Orkney was a highlight of the trip

Re-reading my travel journal, I found this entry:

Sept. 9

We went on a tour with Carrie from See Orkney. It was well worth it! We saw all the Neolithic, Pict, and Viking sites as  well as Skalle (sic) House and the Italian Chapel, where a truck spring gave bounce to the baptismal font.

We ate lunch at a  brewery, which used to be a school – I had hot pot: beef, potatoes, turnips carrots. Again, not enough flavouring but still good on a cool windy day. I had soup as well – carrot and coconut. It was good too.

No dinner: we were still full from lunch – ate biscuits and had tea in our room and watched Father Brown. 

My rather abbreviated journal entry doesn't  do justice to the day. It actually began propitiously when at our typical Scottish breakfast, we were joined by a tiny surprise guest. Someone at the table spied movement on the floor, which we all first thought was a mouse. But no, it was a frog. It must have hopped in when Greg and I arrived in the dark the night before in the wind and rain. Clever amphibian preferred the heated floor of the solarium, where we were now eating breakfast, to the outdoor chill.

Someone at the table picked him up and set him outdoors  in the little walled garden just outside. I looked for him over the next couple of days, but I didn't see him again.

Carrie, our tour guide from See Orkney, arrived at the dot of 9:00, and off we went, the only passengers in her van. Carrie, pronounced as in car (not carry), was a wonderful host: she knew lots of stories about the area and the sites. She also kept us on time so we didn't have to worry about when to be anywhere, especially lunch, which she arranged for us at a pub/brewery.

There were of course sheep everywhere:

Here are some standing stones with sheep:

and no sheep:

and a shy sheep (just one):

Carie said that the standing stones were so prolific in years gone by that farmers used them as flagstones.

***

Our next stop was Skara Brae, a neolithic settlement inhabited between 3200 and 2200 BC. Eight prehistoric houses, connected by low passageways, have survived.The village was revealed by a massive winter storm in 1850, which not only gouged out the land around the village, but killed about 200 of the local people.

In the older part of the settlement, which probably never held more that 150 residents, the sleeping areas are little rooms off the main area:

Here is a passageway:

The view across Skaill Bay is rather unadorned:

Apparently this structure was a workshop , as described in the photo below this shot:

We were there on a rainy windy day. Glad I don't live in neolithic times, deerskins notwithstanding:

The later houses changed slightly and "became more rectangular with rounded internal corners. Also the beds were no longer built into the wall but protruded into the main living area."("http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/skarab1.htm)

The doorway seems a bit low; notice the rounded corners:

Here is the shoreline around Skaill Bay, probably not too much changed over the years, although erosion from storms is taking a greater toll now. 

***

After seeing Skara Brae, we warmed up a bit touring Skaill House, which Visit Scotland calls the "finest 17th Century mansion in Orkney." It was built in 1620 by Bishop George Graham, who was given the land after the execution of the previous land-owner, Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney, for treason in 1615. I mention this only because the 2nd Earl us a very distant relative of mine.

When  I (very quickly) realized that the Stewarts are still strongly disliked, I kept my pride at being related to this earl under heavy wraps. 

The southern wing of the house stands on a pre-Norse, likely Pictish, burial ground.

This link provides a fun account of the lives of Bishop Graham (who was removed from office for being soft on witchcraft and incest) and the various lairds who succeeded him:

http://skaillhouse.co.uk/the-house/the-lairds-of-skaill/  

This is the sunken garden at Skara Brae. The weather in the Orkneys is relatively moderate since, thanks to the Gulf Stream, it is on the same latitude (ca. 58 degrees) as the southern tip of Greenland. Often the flowers we saw were similar to those which flourish in PEI.

Skaill House was eventually home to the man who unearthed Skara Brae in 1850, William Graham Watt. According to information in the link below, he entertained Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of Sir John Franklin after the explorer left Stromness on his ill-fated voyage to find the Northwest passage (a Canadian connection in that Franklin's ships, the Erebus and the Terror were found in 2014 and 2016 respectively).  http://skaillhouse.co.uk/the-house/the-lairds-of-skaill/

I must confess I don't recall whom the portrait below memorializes. It might be Lord Watt. Captain James Cook's dinnerware is displayed at Skaill Hose, but the captain probably didn't linger long enough to have his portrait taken.  

***

Our next stop was Maeshowe, a 5,000 year old burial place, through the passageway of which the sun shines at the winter solstice. I hope, since it is December 21st today, that it is not overcast in Orkney. The entrance is at the white patch to the left.

Archeologists call it a "superlative monument." 

This is the walkway to the mound. Carrie told us that the powers- that-be are thinking of closing Maeshowe to the public because people have to cross a busy road to get to it and they are afraid of accidents. There must be better ways to solve that problem than closing the monument.

The passageway into the mound, lined up to greet the wintry sun, is 36 feet long.You have to walk doubled over and by the end, you feel very glad to be through it.

In about 1100-200 AD, Vikings found their way into the tomb, likely to pillage it, and left rune carvings on its walls. They called it the Mound of the Orks "Orkahaugr." (Graffiti were popular even then but are now considered to be very fine examples of runic writing.)

http://www.visitorkney.com/things/history/maeshowe

The Vikings weren't shy about boasting:

This graphic give a good idea of the elements of the mound:

***

At about then, it was time for lunch.  Now it is time for my 4:00 pre-suppertime break. I shall continue the story in my next blog.