Day 33 – Rousay and Egilsay – Part One

A ferry ticket to Egilsay means an hour’s stopover at Rousay, which is just enough time to get to the RSPB reserve, and one of the two high points on the island. It gives great views of the archipelago, but did entail a mad dash to get to the returning ferry..

The ferry to Rousay takes 30 minutes, but the dog wasn’t a fan. It does have a loud engjne. Then it is just 10 minutes across to the island of Wyre, and then a further 30 minutes to Egilsay, and for the last section, I was the only one on the boat.

Egilsay interested me because it was the place of execution for Magnus Erlendsson in the 11th century; Earl Magnus of Orkney, and later to be Saint Magnus. Later in his life he had converted to Christianity. George Mackay Brown writes a superb book about his life, I will include a review later. These were brutal days, with Orkney at war with Norway, and its boats frequently on raids to such places as the Faroes, Iceland, Grimsby, Isle of Man, Anglesey and Ireland. Magnus’s Earlship was a shared one with his cousin Hakon, but they fought. In a desperate attempt to find peace Magnus attends a meeting with Hakon, on Egilsay, and meets his demise.

St Magnus Church, at the high point on the island of Egilsay.

In 1977 Peter Maxwell Davies composed the opera The Martyrdom of Saint Magnus, another fine way to enjoy the story of his life. https://youtu.be/nsmgzsCezWY

From there we walked to the beach on the far east coast of the island.