The Earl's palace, Birsay.

Shy will be delighted to know that I'm adding Number 11 to my Must see series. He was amazed when I reached 8 things to do on the edge of the known world!

We visited a friend today in the far west of Orkney and this place is just across the road from her house.

The guy that built it (or rather that made other folk build it for him) was Robert Stewart, Mary queen of Scots half brother and wasn't exactly what you would call well liked in these parts. His son, Patrick was tried for 7 counts of treason and this inscription (in latin), placed above the door of the palace, was part of the evidence:

"Lord Robert Stewart, King of the Scots, Son of James V, erected this building."

The defence declared that the inscription was simply a Latin grammatical error and should have read:

"Lord Robert Stewart, son of James V, King of the Scots, erected this building."


Hmmm, do we believe that one...?



If you're interested in more things you must see if you find yourself in these isles, you can see number 10 here and follow them back from there.