In June 1993 St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Orkney, became the focus for an installation of fourteen huge painted sails during that year’s St Magnus Festival. 

Four artists collaborated with well-known Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown on this project that celebrates the journey of Earl Rognvald II of Orkney and his crusaders to Jerusalem in 1151. In fact the journey became more of a pilgrimage than a crusade and atonement, perhaps, for the martyrdom of Orkney’s greatest earl, Magnus. The actual tale appears in the Orkneyinga Saga, that great document on the history of Northern Scotland.

In 1994 the Sails traveled north to Shetland and were hung in St. Magnus Episcopal Church in Lerwick. Ten years on, the same exhibition returns and the Sails once again will be displayed in the Lerwick church to celebrate its 140th anniversary this June. The exhibition has been made possible by the kind sponsorship of the Streamline Shipping Group.

The fourteen Sails are painted canvasses hanging from a wooden spar and were the work of three Orkney artists, Mary Scott, Andrew Parkinson, Erlend Brown (recently the artist-in-residence at the Booth in Scalloway) and Dave Jackson from mainland Scotland. Each Sail has a text by poet George Mackay Brown which in one line encapsulates, in his unique style, the event depicted in the canvas. 
 
The official opening of the exhibition by the 2004 Guizer Jarl  takes place on Sunday 13th June at 7.30pm followed at 7.30pm by a concert given by young musicians from Norway.

The exhibition is just part of a larger celebration of the 140 years of St Magnus Episcopal Church and includes many other events as well as special services. The church is open daily and information accompanying the Sails is available. The Sails in St Magnus exhibition runs from 13th June until the end of the month.