To celebrate St Magnus Day on 16 April, the St Magnus Way charity has teamed up with Cycling UK, RSPB and Historic Environment Scotland to offer an exciting programme of events over the weekend of 15 and 16 April.

The weekend will start with a bang on the Saturday with an action-packed day at Birsay Community Centre, with the centrepiece of the day being the launch of the new St Magnus Way Walking and Cycling Guidebook at 11am

Alongside this, there are going to be a number of cycling events.

Starting at 10 am and finishing at 12 pm, Cycling UK Development Officer Magdalena Choluj is running a try a bike session at which there will be variety of different bikes to try out and a mechanic from Cycling UK will run a Dr Bike session at which you can have a basic safety check done on your bike. This starts at 10am and finishes at 12 noon.

At 11am Orkney’s Lord Lieutenant Elaine Grieve, author David Mazza and publisher Jacquetta Megarry will give short presentations on the new guidebook to the St Magnus Way. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at a cost of £14.99 (cash only), along with tea and coffee. All are invited to this significant moment for the St Magnus Way. We are very grateful to the Society of the Friends of St Magnus Cathedral for their generous grant to enable publication of the guidebook. The guidebook is stocked in many outlets in Orkney including the St Magnus Centre.

At 12 pm there will be a family cycling tour of 6 miles, starting at the Birsay Community Centre and stopping for a packed lunch at the RSPB Loons for a talk by RSPB staff and returning by back roads to the Centre finishing by 2pm. 20 places are available and must pre booked on:

During the course of the morning, we will also welcome Orkney’s Cycling Club at the half-way point of their ride of the St Magnus Way.

These events are free but donations to the St Magnus Way to cover the cost of the events will be most welcome.  No booking required for any of these events except for the family cycle ride – just turn up and enjoy!

Finally, Historic Environment Scotland have generously offered free entry to the Broch of Gurness on April 15^th and 16^th as part of  the St Magnus Day celebrations. The Broch is where the mainland St Magnus Way starts so anyone walking that section in memory of Orkney’s patron saint on those days or anyone else wishing to explore this outstanding Iron Age complex can do so for free.

Stuart Little