Take the ferry across the Eynhallow Sound from the island of Rousay to its near neighbour Egilsay and walk for 600 yards up the single-track lane from the jetty. As the ship’s engine reverberates back across the water you can be left with a resounding silence that is cut through only by birdsong. The skyline of this tiny island has just the one incision too, a curious round tower that punches upwards from the ruins of St Magnus Kirk, one of Orkney’s historically most important churches.
The design of the 12th-century kirk is unusual, with a rectangular sanctuary to the east adjoining that tall round tower (originally 70ft high). While the roof was stripped away in the 19th century, leaving the building open to the elements, the extravagance of
