Fantastic to see the beautiful frescoes in this wee chapel are being restored. Around 500 Italian prisoners of war were brought to the Orkney Islands in the far north of Scotland in 1942 to work on the Churchill Barriers, a series of causeways which link the islands and were intended as barriers against German U-boats. There was no Catholic chapel in the POW camp, so eventually the men were given permission to build one themselves. The chapel is made out of 2 Nissan huts joined together, the façade is concrete and the superb frescoes inside were painted by one of the POWs, Domenico Chiocchetti. Today this little chapel is the only reminder of Camp 60 and in our opinion a “must see” on any Orkney tour.
Hope everyone has been enjoying the antics of the Tartan Army over in Boston for the World Cup! Glad to see the Glasgow tradition of putting cones on statues is alive and well across the pond 😂⚽️🏴The Scottish fans didn't just bring bagpipes and beer to Boston.
They brought traffic cones for the statues too.
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If trees could talk, this one would have some tales to tell!
This is the Birnam Oak, 600 years old and the last remaining tree of the Birnam Wood mentioned by Shakespeare in Macbeth.
In the play Macbeth is warned by the witches that he will not be overthrown until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane. Macbeth decides to ignore the witches with their crazy talk of trees moving around and commits several murders in pursuit of the Scottish throne. However Malcolm’s army take branches from the trees in the wood, use them to disguise themselves, and ultimately Macbeth meets a sticky end (it is a tragedy after all!)
Shakespeare is rumoured to have visited Perthshire with a group of travelling players in 1589, so perhaps he visited here and took inspiration from the forest ✍️
The oak in folklore is the king of the forest, and a hollow in an oak tree is said to be a fairy door, or a gateway to supernatural realms. The word ‘druid’ may come from a Celtic word meaning “knower of the oak tree” 🌳 🌳🌳
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