Stonework and the Cathedral Mason

about this project

Caring for the Stone

The cathedral is built of red sandstone quarried at the Head of Holland, north of Kirkwall, and yellow sandstone believed to have come from Eday. The contrast between the two is one of the building’s defining qualities, and comparison with Durham and Dunfermline suggests that English masons travelled north to work here in the twelfth century.

Stone of that age needs constant attention, and for many years the cathedral employed its own traditional stonemason. That post no longer exists. The Society’s support has moved with the cathedral’s needs: the Friends now contribute to the Curator and to the Visitor Services Assistant, and to the daily work of keeping the building cared for and open.

The scale of what that care involves was shown in 2021, when the West Front was repointed inside and out in lime mortar. Cement-based mortar applied in an earlier era had been failing and letting water into the stone.

Samples of the original mortar were taken from construction joints and analysed by the Scottish Lime Centre in Fife, so that the replacement could be matched for strength, colour and aggregate. Meredith Macbeth, Historic Buildings Conservator, put the reasoning simply: “Lime mortar is a traditional building material and would have been original to the Cathedral."

Some of the work is invisible from the floor. Some of it is not: the carved capitals of the nave, the beasts and foliage cut by the first masons, and the small consecration crosses incised into the walls all need watching, and all of it is stone that will need working on again long after we are gone.