A new pilgrimage route was launched on Orkney on Easter Sunday, on the 900th anniversary of the death of St Magnus. The Rev David McNeish, minister of Birsay, Harray and Sandwick in Orkney, said plans for the St Magnus Way emerged after a small group of people from different churches came together to discuss a pilgrimage route on the island.
“When we started talking about a pilgrim route St Magnus, who is the patron saint of Orkney, was the first person who came to mind. After his martyrdom on the island of Egilsay his body was brought to Birsay on the mainland. Then 20 years later, when the seat of power moved to Kirkwall, his bones were taken there.
“So there was a journey Magnus himself took after his death, as well as evidence of people making pilgrimage to Orkney in the Middle Ages,” he explained.