Cubbie Roo's Castle and St Mary's Chapel

On the small Orkney island of Wyre stand the remains of the earliest documented stone castle in Scotland. The Orkneyinga Saga records that a Norwegian named Kolbein Hruga built a fine stone castle here in 1145, and Cubbie Roo is probably a corruption of his name. The Norse did not build stone castles in their homelands, and almost none are known in Britain. A later saga describes a siege in 1231 and calls the castle a very unhandy place to attack. Today low walls stand inside the old defences, with wide views across the island. Down the hill is St Mary's Chapel, built a few years later by Kolbein or his son Bjarni, who became bishop of Orkney, a fine example of simple Norse Romanesque building; it was ruined by the late 1700s, but its small graveyard is still in use. Wyre is reached by the small Orkney Ferries boat from Tingwall, booked at least an hour ahead; the castle is half a mile from the pier.