The Orkney Museum, formerly Tankerness House Museum, is a history museum in Kirkwall,

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

, Scotland. Run by Orkney Islands Council, the museum covers the history of the Orkney Islands from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

through the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Scotland in the early Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pic ...

and

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

to the present day. The museum was founded in 1968 as Tankerness House Museum and in 1999 changed its name to The Orkney Museum. Items in the collection include the Viking 'dragon' whalebone plaque from the Scar boat burial, a Pictish symbol stone from the Knowe of Burrian, and the wooden box in which the remains of Saint Magnus Erlendsson were kept.

Tankerness House

The museum is housed within Tankerness House, a

Category A listed Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * Category ( ...

former

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

complex centred around a courtyard and sited opposite St Magnus Cathedral in central Kirkwall. The house is considered one of the most important early townhouses in Scotland. The earliest parts of the building (the north and south wings) were constructed in the 1530s as two separate houses that served as

manse A manse () is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other Christian traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin ''mansus'', "dwelling", from '' ...

s for the cathedral. Following the

Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process whereby Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church, and established the Protestant Church of Scotland. It forms part of the wider European 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Fr ...

the houses were purchased from the church by the archdeacon Gilbert Foulzie, who in 1574 built an additional wing (the east wing) and the entrance archway facing onto Broad Street which bears his coat of arms and Latin inscriptions. He also had a large bench built in the courtyard, the 'dole's seat', where beggars would wait to receive

alms Alms (, ) are money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty. Providing alms is often considered an act of Charity (practice), charity. The act of providing alms is called almsgiving. Etymology The word ''alms'' come ...

from Foulzie. In 1642 the buildings were sold by Foulzie's descendants to John Baikie of Tankerness, with the properties becoming known as Tankerness House and remaining part of the Baikie family estate for three centuries. The Baikies later built an additional wing, the west wing, in 1680 and the south-west gable in 1722. In 1951 the Baikies sold the house to the local council, and in 1968 the building was restored and opened as the new Tankerness House Museum. The preserved Baikie library and drawing room remain on display.

Gallery

File:Scar Plaque, Scar Viking boat burial, Sanday, Orkney.jpg, whalebone 'dragon' plaque from the Viking Scar boat burial File:'Peedie Pict' Pictish carved figure on ox bone from Bu Sands, Burray, Orkney.jpg, 'Peedie Pict' Pictish carved figure on ox bone File:Tankerness House (geograph 5842134).jpg, The central courtyard of Tankerness House

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orkney Museum, The Kirkwall Museums in Orkney Museums established in 1968 History museums in Scotland