Old Photographs North Ronaldsay Orkney Islands Scotland

Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of North Ronaldsay, the northernmost island in the archipelago of the Orkney Islands. Dennis Head, in the northeast of the island, is home to an historic lighthouse known as the Old Beacon. The light was first established in 1789 by Thomas Smith. It was to be the first of many island lighthouses for Smith, who had previously worked on the lights at Kinnaird Head and Mull of Kintyre. Smith received assistance with the North Ronaldsay light from Ezekiel Walker and from his stepson Robert Stevenson. In 1809 with the construction of other nearby lighthouses it was decided that the North Ronaldsay light was no longer required and it was extinguished. Hollandstoun church is a rectangular plan rubble built church with clash harling. The south elevation features softwood windows, whilst a single storey vestry with gablehead stack projects from the west gable. The east gable features an off centre square crenellated belltower in 3 stages. Each stage features a single rectangular window, with a louvred opening to the bell. The steeply pitched roof is in local slate pegged to battens. Holland House was the Laird's house, built in the middle of the 18th century for James Traill, an Edinburgh lawyer, who purchased the island in 1727. The house was extended to the south in 1873 and the west in 1905, with the addition of a castellated tower. The house remains in the hands of his direct descendants. Three cannon, which were retrieved from the wreck of the Crown Prince in 1744, stand facing the sea. The adjacent walled garden provides the only significant concentration of trees and shrubs on the island. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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