One of my favourite history places. The Italian History Chapel in Orkney

One of my favourite places is the Italian Chapel on the tiny island of Lamb Holm on Orkney. It stands alone beside a concrete statue of St George, facing mainland Orkney across a stretch of water called Kirk Sound. It is approached from a road on a causeway which provides a route between mainland Orkney and the islands to the south.

Although the chapel has many of the features which you would expect to see in a Catholic church, closer inspection shows that first appearances can be deceptive. If you look at the photograph of the interior you will see a painting of the Madonna and Child surrounded by cherubic figures with the scroll inscribed ‘Queen of Peace pray for us’. This creation was the work Domenico Chiocchetti, who used a
picture in his prayer card of a painting called ‘Madonna and Child’, by an Italian artist called Nicolo Barabino.