[Photos] UK 29 - Kirkwall and Magnus Cathedral

We stayed in Kirkwall while we were in Orkney, which I really liked. There was the neat little fandom touch (I wrote a Bull/Cullen Dragon Age: Inquisition fic, and researched Cullen's base of Kirkwall a lot, and one can't help but feel it was partly based on the town itself), which was partly why I wanted to stay there.

We ended up in a lovely detached flat behind a family home, and the hosts were really generous and kind. They gave us access to their washing line (which was sorely needed), and while we were on restricted hot water (it only operated at certain times), it worked out fine.

One of the nights we stayed, I had a craving for Chinese and was getting sick of fish & chips or sandwiches or any of the other instant, simple things we ate (I ate an awful lot of fruit, especially raspberries, because they were so cheap compared to here). There was the main stretch, which had a single Chinese place. I was on Google Maps just moving it around and looking at what there was, when I happened to notice a Chinese place in the opposite direction of the town, where nothing else was except houses.

On a whim, I looked them up to see the reviews, of which there were plenty, and they were all very positive. It turned out the local Chipenese (Chippie x Chinese) was something of a staple for the locals, who highly recommended that ferry loupers (tourists) not be put off by the fact that it's a demountable at the back of a home, and it's tiny. So Glen went and lo and behold they had a full Scottish chippie menu (replete with white, red and black pudding), and a full Chinese menu.

And they deserved all the positive reviews, it was amazing.

Tbh everything in Orkney was often better than I thought it would be, which given I went in with really high expectations, was like...pretty unexpected actually.


A very quiet main street in Kirkwall, on Easter Monday, as we searched for lunch.



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[Photos] UK 30 - Orkney, The Italian Chapel

The Italian Chapel was already on my to do list, but when I met Lane in Chichester and got to have a conversation with her about her own visit to Orkney, she strongly recommended the Italian Chapel and that made me bump it up the list, and I'm really glad I did.

So a bit of history. The Italian Chapel is a Roman Catholic Chapel that was built by Italian POWs during World War II. It is made of two Nissen huts, and features extensive use of trompe l'oeil. The POWs were sent to a previously uninhabited island, and alone, far from home, with no real idea of what would happen to them, they began to wish for a place to worship, and asked for the resources to make this possible.

Everything you see, just about, is painted. The tiles are painted. Many of the wooden details are painted. Very well rendered by Domenico Chiocchetti, a prisoner from Moena (and details later finished in the 60s and again later on). The facade was made of concrete to conceal the shape of the hut. The bell was made of cardboard. The light holders were made of corned beef tins. And so on and so forth, ingenuity in a time of war.

While Chiocchetti's fellow prisoners were released, he remained to finish the Chapel. And in 1958, a group of Orcadians set up a Chapel Preservation Committee and Chiocchetti returned to help restore it. Other released POWs have since returned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of coming to the island. To this day, it is considered under joint ownership of Moena, Italy, and Orkney.



The interior. Once again, thanks to patience and despite the incredibly good weather, we had the entire place to ourselves.



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