St Magnus Cathedral

In 1137 work began on the building of St Magnus Cathedral, as Rognvald had vowed. The work went on well for the first three years, but then Rognvald ran out of money. The Orkneyinga Saga says that Rognvald offered the Orkney people the opportunity to buy back the land rights that they had lost to an earlier earl and become free landowners once more. They agreed, and soon there was enough money to continue the building work. Master masons who had been working on Durham Cathedral came to Orkney to take part in the building of St Magnus, while Rognvald's father, Kol Kalisson, supervised the work. The relics of St Magnus were taken there and placed in a shrine over the High Altar. Pilgrims came to pray at the shrine of St Magnus, but it never became a major cult centre.

 

 

The apse that stood at the east end of the building was demolished in the early 13th century and a magnificent rose window was built. The west end was lengthened in the 15th century, so the cathedral as we see it now is a lot longer and higher than the one that Rognvald would have known. After his death Rognvald was buried in the cathedral, and he was made a saint in 1192. Both these saints' bones are still interred in the cathedral.

 

 

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