Orkney Arts, Museums and Heritage

30/05/2026

The 10am ground floor tours of St Magnus Cathedral are CANCELLED on Tuesday June 2nd and Wednesday June 3rd due to organ tuning.
The 10am tour will return as normal on Thursday June 4th.
Please see our website for the full tour schedule: https://orkneymuseums.co.uk/st-magnus-cathedral-tours/

27/05/2026

Hi folks,

Orkney Museum will open later than usual on Thursday 28 May, with doors opening at 11:30am and closing at the usual time of 5pm.

We’ll be carrying out some essential building checks that morning, and will open as soon as we’re able.

From Friday 29 May, we’ll return to our regular summer opening hours of 10:30am – 5pm.

Thank you for your understanding!

24/05/2026

This Bank Holiday Monday, join us for a fascinating tour of the historic graveyard at St Magnus Cathedral. It starts at 2pm; meet inside at the custodian’s office. The tour costs £10.40 per person and lasts for one hour.

These tours take place EVERY Monday and Friday until the end of September, and there is no need to book!

12/05/2026

***Special FREE tour for War Graves Week - Saturday 16 May at 12.30pm***

This coming Saturday marks the start of War Graves Week. We at St Magnus Cathedral would like to offer a free tour of the cathedral graveyard, looking at the Commonwealth War Graves, the Kirkwall and St Ola War Memorial, and the mentions on family headstones of those casualties of war buried elsewhere in the world.

The tour starts at the war memorial at 12.30pm, and lasts approximately 45-60 minutes. There is no charge and there is no need to book.

11/05/2026

It's Monday...so there must be a graveyard tour! Join curator Fran at 2pm for an hour-long stroll round the cathedral graveyard to hear fascinating stories of those buried here. There's no need to book - just meet inside the cathedral, by the custodian's office. The tour costs £10.40 per person.

05/05/2026

🦉🐍🐟🌴🌸 CATHEDRAL CURATOR TOUR 🌸🌴🐟🐍🦉

Wednesday 6 May....at 2pm.
Join Cathedral Curator Fran Hollinrake for a look at the cathedral for images of the natural world and some stories about what they mean.
We have snakes, date palms, eagles, shells, curlews and more!
The tour costs £15.60 and lasts 1 hour.
No need to book, just meet the guide inside the main door.

01/05/2026

28/04/2026

We have a replica Orkney Hood on display in our Viking Galleries revamped last year. You can also try your hand at wool spinning and have a chat to Ragna our AI Viking. There is plenty to see at the Orkney Museum whatever your interest. Open Monday to Saturday 1030 - 1700hrs

A single piece of woven brown wool, fringed with hand-twisted plaits, found in 1867 in a peat bog at Tankerness on Orkney. The fibres are thin and uneven; the weaver was working without a true loom, possibly on a vertical warp-weighted frame. Radiocarbon dating places its making between 250 and 615 AD.

The Orkney Hood is one of the only complete Iron Age garments to survive from Britain. The cloth was originally woven as a rectangle, then folded and stitched into a hooded shawl. It was repaired several times in its working life, the wool worn at the front and shoulders. It now sits in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, the textile still soft enough to lift.