Musings
Musing August 2009
ODIN STONE: Plates 24 - 27
Plate 24: St Nicholas Round Kirk, Orphir, Orkney, 2003
St Nicolas Round Kirk is related to the image in Plate 20 (Bell Pull, St. Magnus Church, Birsay). The story of Earl Magnus the Martyr is told in the Orkneyinga Saga, and relays the story of the murder of Earl Magnus by Earl Hakon so that Hakon could consolidate control of Orkney under his Earldom. Legend has it that Hakon began to feel guilty about the murder of Magnus and went on a crusade in order to do his penitence for the murder. After he returned form his crusade, he built this round kirk on his property.
St. Nicholas Kirk is the only round church in Scotland to survive that era. The development of round kirks throughout northern Europe was a direct response to the Crusades. The Round Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem inspired the returning knights. St Nicolas Kirk was once twenty feet in diameter with a small apse. Today, only the small apse and sections of the nearby wall continue to stand. St. Nicholas remained intact until the 18th century when much of it was pulled down and the stones used to build a local kirk. This local kirk no longer exists but the surrounding graveyard speaks to its presence. On every trip I’ve made to Orkney I revisited this monument. The round wall reminds me of a catcher’s mitt catching the afternoon sun’s brilliance.
Plate 25: Transept, St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney, 2005
Continuing the connection of my images to the St Magnus story, Plate 25 was made in the transept of St. Magnus Cathedral. Magnus the Martyr was canonized on April 16, 1135. Construction of the cathedral was begun in 1137, with the promise of dedicating the building to St. Magnus, interring his bones within, and moving the bishops seat from Birsay to Kirkwall. It is believed that this Cathedral was built by the same masons who completed the Durham Cathedral in England. They used red sandstone quarried near Kirkwall and yellow sandstone quarried on Eday. It has served the citizens of Orkney and Kirkwall for over 850 years.
My inspiration for wanting to photograph in the Cathedral was Fredrick Evans. The images he made in the English cathedrals were the first to teach me that photographs could go beyond the simple recording of facts and his cathedral work continues to inspire me to this day. The opportunity to photograph in this 12th century cathedral was too much for me to pass by. Almost every visit to Orkney I took time to photograph in this space. Cathedrals were built to inspire, to raise ones thoughts. Each visit I see new things, new relationships between shapes and light and dark. Each visit I am trying to make photographs that go beyond record making and raise the bar to inspiration.
Plate 26: Ramsquoy Peat Allotment, Stenness, Orkney, 2005
One afternoon Mona Swannie, the landlady of the Orkney Bed & Breakfast where I stay, handed me an old, almost crumbling, piece of paper that had been folded many times over the years. It was a map of the original peat allotments for the farms in Stenness. Although not used much for heat any more Ramsquoy still has a claim to its peat allotment on the uphill side of its fields. I borrowed Jim’s truck and drove up to the back of Ramsquoy seeking the peat allotment and a beautiful view out over Scapa Flow. My intention that day was to photograph the sunset but instead I found the life cycle of peat there in front of me. Peat starts as heather, dies, turns white, and is then covered by the next growth of heather. Eventually it turns into a rich black, almost mud-like substance. Cut and dried it has been used to heat homes for millennia on Orkney and all across Scotland. In this image you can see the living heather, the dead heather turning white, and the rich black peat that lies beneath.
Plate 27: Fence Line, Finstown, Orkney, 2007
Stonewalls. Orkney is filled with stonewalls etching the landscape, defining farms, providing wind breaks and a place to stack stones out of the fields. This wall divides two small sections of land all the way down to the sea and with the dark shoreline provides an arrow pointing out towards the islands to the north. These small plots of land are on the north side of the A965 between Finstown and Stromness at a small car pull-off. It is a place to pull over make a phone call, eat lunch or let faster cars pass you by. I used it on many occasions and was fascinated by the wall leading to the sea. For me, this image visually explains much of Orkney to me, farms leading down to the sea, farmers with boats and fishermen with farms.