{"id":1212,"date":"2011-05-22T13:08:12","date_gmt":"2011-05-22T12:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/?p=1212"},"modified":"2011-05-22T13:08:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-22T12:08:59","slug":"tankerness-house-kirkwall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/2011\/05\/tankerness-house-kirkwall\/","title":{"rendered":"Tankerness House, Kirkwall"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pre reformation Tankerness House in Kirkwall is now home to the Orkney Museum, but has a wealth of history of it’s own.<\/p>\n

\"Tankerness_house_front\"<\/a>
The frontage of Tankerness House belies what lays behind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opposite St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall is Orkney’s finest town house, with the first pre reformation structures built as manses for the Archdeacon and Choir Master of St. Magnus Cathedral.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Following the reformation<\/a> in 1574, it became home to Gilbert Fulzie, Kirkwall’s first Protestant priest.<\/p>\n

The street front to the house does little to illustrate the large building that lays behind.<\/p>\n

Built\u00a0 around a rectangular courtyard with a large walled garden, it was acquired in 1641 by James Baikie and at this point was given it’s name of Tankerness House.<\/p>\n

Baikie<\/h2>\n

Baikie, like many other names in Orkney can be traced back to it’s viking past and James Baikie, who was a successful Kirkwall merchant was descended directly from Paul Baikie, navigator to King H\u00e5kon IV in 1264, mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga’s. James’ son Arthur Baikie became Provost of Kirkwall.<\/p>\n

The west wing of the house was built by James Baikie in the 1640s and the family continued to live there, renovating and developing the property until<\/p>\n

\"Tankerness_house_gardens\"<\/a>
The large, well manicured gardens with the Groatie House in view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1951.\u00a0 Tankerness House was then passed to Kirkwall Borough Council and later came under the care of the Orkney Islands Council.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Extensive restoration was carried out in 1968 when it was converted into Orkney Museum, telling the story of Orkney from prehistoric times to the present day.<\/p>\n

The museum now houses artefacts from Orkney’s prehistoric past, native pictish peoples and the viking invaders and settlers.<\/p>\n

Orkney’s commerce is also well represented with collections from local businesses and fishing industry.<\/p>\n

Walled Garden<\/h2>\n

The beautiful walled garden of Tankerness house is planted with herbaceous borders surrounding a neatly manicured large lawn area.<\/p>\n

Somewhat protected from the Orkney elements, the garden has a few rockeries and an area close to the house where herbs are grown.\u00a0 At the bottom of the garden is a strange tower shaped building with a conical roof, known as the Groatie Hoose.<\/p>\n

Groatie Hoose<\/a><\/h2>\n

A square box like room with it’s conical roof appears to have been in the garden of Tankerness House for many years. However, the story behind this building involves pirates, a large fire and a restoration project.<\/p>\n

More information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Orkney Museum<\/strong><\/a> – Find out more about the collections and opening times.<\/p>\n

Groatie Hoose <\/strong><\/a>– Discover the story behind this strange building<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pre reformation Tankerness House in Kirkwall is now home to the Orkney Museum, but has a wealth of history of it’s own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[768,22],"tags":[2453,2478,2467,2483,2479,2480,2447,2466,849,2469,2459,2468,2446,434,2482,2449,167,2481,2454,1456],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-buildings-architecture","category-featured","tag-archdeacon","tag-belies","tag-choir-master","tag-fishing-industry","tag-frontage","tag-invaders-and-settlers","tag-james-baikie","tag-manses","tag-orkney-islands-council","tag-orkneyinga-saga","tag-prehistoric-times","tag-protestant-priest","tag-rectangular-courtyard","tag-reformation","tag-s-commerce","tag-son-arthur","tag-st-magnus-cathedral","tag-viking-invaders","tag-walled-garden","tag-west-wing","entry"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Tankerness_house_front.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Tankerness_house_front.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/author\/admin\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}