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Extract from the Birsay and Evie Travel Guides:
Occupying the northwest corner of the Mainland, the parish of
BIRSAY
was the centre of Norse power in Orkney for several centuries before the earls moved to Kirkwall, some time after the construction of its cathedral. Today a tiny cluster of homes is gathered around the sandstone ruins of the
Earl's Palace
, which was built in the second half of the sixteenth century by Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, using the forced labour of the islanders, who weren't even given food and drink for their work. The palace appears to have lasted barely a century before falling into rack and ruin; the crumbling walls and turrets retain...
read the whole Birsay and Evie Travel Guides...
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