More sight seeing

We spent the morning looking around the Earl's and Bishop's palaces. The capital of Orkney used to be in Birsay but was moved to Kirkwall in the 16th century. We saw the ruins of the Earl's palace in Birsay yesterday. The Kirkwall one was built a generation later and is a magnificent town house with the turrets so typical of the Scottish baronial style. The Bishop's palace moved to Kirkwall first and was remodelled by the infamous Earl Patrick Stewart when he took it over so it had turrets too. The remaining tower, built to defend the bishop from the earls, makes a fine place to view the cathedral from.

It was 1pm once we left the palaces and the Sunday service was over so we could view the cathedral. It is a great piece of Romanesque architecture, and was partly built by stone masons who had built Durham Cathedral. At the time, it was part of the diocese of Trondheim and shares features in common with Norwegian churches of the period.