Bill Irvine wrote: >thanks, mike, for the links >it's a good thing someone hung the red brawly on the tombstone at kirkwall green or one would think it was a b&w camera >can you name the kirk spire for us in the stromness views? >it's piqued my interst for years (i even photographed it myself) but have never researched it >thnx > > Hello Bill, The kirk spire belongs to what I knew as the "Free" or North Kirk - now Stromness Town Hall. When I was growing up in Stromness there were four Kirks - the UP (United Presbyterian), St. Peter's Parish Church or "Old Kirk", the Free Kirk and the Episcopalian Church. St. Peter's is now Stromness Community Centre, the Free Kirk is, as I say, the Town Hall and the UP Kirk is now the Parish Church. The "pisky" (Episcopalian and in full communion with the Church of England) is still in use, so far as I know. There is also what we disparagingly called the "Tin Tabernacle" - the meeting place of the Plymouth Brethren opposite what is now the Stromness Surgery. I was in the Town Hall (old Free Kirk) the year before last during the Folk Festival to hear the Orkney Strathspey and Reel Society. Apart from hanging some long curtains to hide the stained glass windows and removing some of the pews, the building has not changed a bit. It has wonderful acoustics and is much appreciated by visiting musicians. -- Mike Clouston