St Magnus Church, Birsay

St Magnus's Church is located in the village of Birsay in the northwest area of Mainland, Orkney in Scotland.

It is a rectangular building with a harled exterior, round-headed windows and gabled ends.

[1][2] The church has a plain interior, its only adornment an early 20th-century, three-panel stained glass window, decorated with images of the Crucifixion and the life of St Magnus.

The graveyard surrounding the church contains several gravestones dating to the mid and late 18th century.

When Earl Magnus was declared a saint around 1136, his bones were exhumed at the church and placed in a shrine on top of an altar.

Since October 2024 the former ecclesiastical parish of Birsay, Harray and Sandwick has been part of the united Orkney Islands Church of Scotland.