Saturday, June 04, 2011
Most people think of architecture in terms of solid buildings. In Orkney the Bishop's and Earl's P(a)laces were collections of enclosed spaces called Yards. The chief of these was the Place (as in Place de la Concord), what we would call a courtyard. Thus the Place of The Yards was roughly the equivalent of royalty's courts. Even in the last century locals still referred to the Earl's Palace in Birsay as "the place of Birsay". But though the Place is much more than what the British think of today as a place it was never a palais.
Labels: Bishop's Palace, courtyard, Earl's Palace, Place of The Yards
