realised, since the late Duke of Argyll gifted the
ruined cathedral to the Church of Scotland, which hopes to do for it
what has already been done for Dunblane.

13. DIOCESE OF ORKNEY

Christianity reached the Orkneys through the labours of the Columban
clergy, and there are many traces in the islands that speak of their
work. Under the rule of the Norse, in the ninth and tenth centuries any
Christian influence that survived from the labours of such early
pioneers of the Christian faith must have died out. The first actual
Bishop of Orkney was William the Old, who was consecrated in 1102, held
the bishopric for sixty-six years, and died in 1168. His see was first
at Birsay, and was removed to Kirkwall on the erection of the cathedral
in 1137-1152. The Bishop of Orkney was one of the suffragans of the
metropolitan see at Throndhjeim, erected in 1154. In 1472 the see of
Orkney was placed under the metropolitan Bishop of St. Andrews.

The story of the foundation at Kirkwall is as follows. The possession of
the Orkneys was divided between two relatives, and about the beginning
of the twelfth century two cousins, Hacon and Magnus, shared the
government. In 1115 Magnus was treacherously slain at Egilsay by Hacon,
who thus obtained the whole earldom. Rognvald, son of Magnus' sister,
became a claimant for Magnus' share of the earldom, and vowed that if he
succeeded he would erect a "stone minster" in honour of his predecessor
St. Magnus, who had been canonised. Rognvald was successful, and
fulfilled his vow by founding at Kirkwall a cathedral dedicated to St.
Magnus. The building was designed and superintended by the Norwegian
Kol, the father of Rognvald; the relics of St. Magnus were brought from
Christ's Kirk in Birsay, to be deposited in the cathedral as soon as it
was prepared to receive them, and until the work was finished they
rested in the Church of St. Olaf, an older edifice which then existed in
Kirkwall.[205]

"The Cathedral of St. Magnus was thus designed and erected by a
Norwegian earl, while the bishopric was under the authority of the
Norwegian Metropolitan of Throndhjeim. It is thus practically a
Norwegian edifice, and is by far the grandest monument of the rule of
the Norsemen in Orkney. In these circumstances, it is not to be expected
that the architecture should in every detail follow the contemporary
styles which prevailed in Britain, but it is astonishing to find how
closely the earlier parts correspo