Norwegian Constitution Day celebrations

Friday 17 May 2024 is a special day in the Orkney and Norway calendar, with the annual marking of Norwegian Constitution Day. 

The further strengthening of bonds gets under way at 10.30am with a Remembrance service at the Norwegian war graves in St Olaf’s Cemetery. Transport will be provided for official guests from Kirkwall Pierhead to the cemetery at 10am. 

At 12noon the Tog will set off from the Kirkwall Pierhead to the Cathedral Market Green, led by members of the Kirkwall City Pipe Band, Norwegian visitors, school children and any members of the public who would like to join in. 

The Norwegian National Anthem will be played followed by a welcome speech from the Council Convener, Graham Bevan and a reply from Norwegian guest of honour, Truls Hanevold. 

Truls and his Finnish wife Leena have been regular visitors to Orkney. He joined the Norwegian Foreign Service in 1971. His first overseas appointment was to Helsinki, followed by Tel Aviv, Ottawa, Stockholm and London before he became Director General for the Foreign Ministry in Oslo. He rounded off his diplomatic career as Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland and finally Norwegian Ambassador to India. 

Now an octogenarian and retired, he lives with Leena in Oslo. They have a son and a daughter working in Norway. 

Kirkwall City Pipe Band will perform (at around 12:30pm) followed by the Orkney Norway Friendship Association Concert in the Cathedral, featuring pupils from Kirkwall Grammar School. 

Thereafter, a civic reception for invited guests will be held in Kirkwall Town Hall. 

Norwegian Constitution Day is celebrated in Orkney every year and the longstanding relationship dates back many centuries to when the islands were populated by Norwegians in the late 700s. 

In 1983 an official Twinning Agreement was signed with Hordaland County Council and at Christmas a tree is delivered to Orkney as a gift from the region. This formal agreement was reaffirmed in 2022, following creation of the Vestland County in 2020 when the former counties of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane merged.