Cathedral bells to mark solidarity with Notre Dame

The bells of St Magnus Cathedral will chime for seven minutes at 7pm, this evening, Thursday, as a gesture of sympathy for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris — which was tragically struck by fire on Monday.

Kirkwall’s iconic sandstone church will join other cathedrals across Europe in this mark of solidarity, the cathedral minister, Reverend Fraser Mcnaughton has confirmed.

The fire at Paris’s 850-year old cathedral claimed much of the roof and saw some of its irreplaceable artwork destroyed.

Commenting on the disastrous events, Rev McNaughton said: “It’s one of these things that comes out of the blue and is such a shock to people. It’s almost unimaginable if something like that happened to St Magnus Cathedral.

“Inevitably, if buildings have stood for 800 years there is a chance of them seeing wars and revolutions and or even of catching on fire, of course, but when these disasters come the shock is quite severe. For me, the fact that Notre Dame is in the middle of Paris and such an iconic building and that it is used for weddings and ceremonies and graduations, chimes with the many uses of St Magnus Cathedral.”