Today, the Brough of Birsay is a small tidal island off the Orkney mainland. Between the 600s and 1200s AD, the area was settled by the Picts and Norse.
For more information visit on this building visit www.explorechurches.org/church/st-peter-brough-birsay
Very soon after the Second World War was declared many Italian Soldiers were captured in North Africa. Over 1000 prisoners were transported to Orkney to assist with the construction of the Churchill Barriers being built to make Scapa Flow, the base for the home fleet more secure, following the sinking of HMS Royal Oak with the loss of over 800 British sailors.
This pretty little church, which is still in use, is well known for the messages etched in the church window by families cleared from the surrounding land in 1845 as part of the infamous Highland clearances.
Scalloway Church was built in 1840-41. It is a square, two-storey building with a gable roof and a bell tower above the entrance porch. The organ is one of only four surviving pipe organs in Shetland. It is believed to have been built by Andrew Watt of Glasgow in 1903.
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