Thoughts of 'Catheral stalwart' recorded
"Reminiscences of the Cathedral Church of St Magnus since 1846 by an Eyewitness"

The pews in St Magnus Cathedral before they were replaced with individual seats. (Picture: Orkney Library Photographic Archives)

Many people walk past the dominating sandstone building that is St Magnus Cathedral every morning as they go about their daily business.

Often the building is covered by scaffolding as ever-necessary restoration work continues, but do they really give it a second thought?

It is taken for granted that the building – which has dominated the Kirkwall skyline for more than 860 years – will be there for ever. Something which might not have happened, according to an eye witness account by Samuel Baikie during the 1800s.

His thoughts and reminiscences have been documented in a booklet published by the St Magnus Centre management committee entitled, “Reminiscences of the Cathedral Church of St Magnus since 1846 by an Eye Witness”.

The government of the 1840s were aware of the Cathedral’s plight and to prevent the building falling into ruin gave a grant of £3,000.

The following year instructions were given on how to proceed and a number of local masons and labourers were employed to get the red sandstone from Eday. Joiners for the carpentry work and a number of stone cutters were sent from south.

Mr Baikie writes: “During the years 1847-48 the operations of repairs were chiefly confined to the rebuilding of the parapet walls of the nave and transepts together with a considerable portion of the wall heads and string courses under these parapets that had fallen much in decay and was admitting water to an almost ruinous extent through the wall heads, so much so, that after a time of rainy weather the interior kept up a dropping for some weeks afterwards and sent a chill damp in throughout the building.”

Work was also undertaken on many of the other details such as repairing and refilling decayed stones, pointing wall joints and the interior.

Mr Baikie continued: “The interior was receiving no small share of attention, especially throughout the nave and transepts, the floors of which had accumulated to such a height as to conceal all the bases of the columns in those parts and the columns themselves mugged up in rather a hedious manner with the memorials of the departed.

“These were all removed and placed along the side walls in an orderly manner as now seen, the floor excavated of earthy matter to an average depth of about 20 inches and repaired with native flagstones, thus shewing the bases of the columns at a reasonable height and as no doubt the original founders had intended.”

Work stopped during the winter of 1848 and resumed again the following spring.

Mr Baikie continues: “The steeple was also supplied with a new Ballastrade, turrets at the four corners thereof, the roof re-slated after being partially repaired with timber and the Bartizan floors laid with heavy sawn edged Caithness pavement, which were expected to throw off the storm waters, but eventually were found defective in this respect and had to be covered with sheet lead.”

Mr Baikie was born in 1821 and served his time in Orkney as a house carpenter before moving to Edinburgh in 1840 to work. When he returned to Orkney in 1842 he continued in his trade and married Mary Harvey the following year. They had 14 children.

In 1851 he became a master builder and started up his own business. Nine years later he purchased the stock-in-trade and goodwill of a timber merchant business which had belonged to the late James Walls. Two years later he installed a steam sawmill with upright and circular saws – the first of its kind in Orkney. In 1881, his sons William and Samuel joined him and soon after he opened a similar sawmill in Stromness.

As a building contractor he erected some of the largest buildings in the county, including the Commercial Bank (now the Scottish Hydro Electric premises), the Episcopal Church, the Town Hall, the Free Church (now the King Street Church) and the St Magnus Hall in Kirkwall.

Samuel Baikie died on Sunday, November 19, 1899, at 28 Dundas Crescent in Kirkwall.

Additional material in the booklet has been provided by Mr George S. Burgher, secretary of the St Magnus Centre management committee, who said it was appropriate that the original document by Mr Baikie be reproduced.

“Samuel Baikie was a Cathedral stalwart who designed and built the St Magnus Hall.”

He continued: “In 2001, we cannot contemplate the Cathedral being in a poor state of repair but this was not always the case. Up to the early 19th century the nave was used for burials. The alterations of the mid 19th century helped to make the building wind and water tight but retained the choir as the area for worship. It was only in the restoration of the early 20th century, using Sheriff Thoms bequest, that the pews and partitions of the choir were removed, the new higher spire was built, and the present pulpit and choir stalls installed, along with the Willis organ.”

Orkney Islands Council look after the Cathedral on behalf of the people of Orkney and the Society of the Friends of St Magnus, formed in 1958, have raised large sums for repairs.

The booklet, which is available priced £4 from the Cathedral and the St Magnus Centre, also contains several photographs and a plan of the floor of the west end of the Cathedral from 1769.

Lorraine Shearer