Celebrate Shrine Mont & Orkney Springs, Virginia

04/24/2026

Shrine Mont celebrated its 100th year in 2025. It got its start in 1925 with the consecration of the Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration, the seat of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
An article on the anniversary appears in the latest issue of Virginia Living.

Discover the story behind Shrine Mont, the only outdoor Episcopal cathedral in the country, and its serene setting in the Shenandoah Valley.

01/05/2026

01/03/2026

It happened in Orkney Springs. https://archive.org/details/time-1951-06-18/Time 1951-08-20

12/05/2025

Welcome to Week 3 of Nailed It! By Nielsen, where we highlight some of our favorite historical builds. This week – the Orkney Springs Hotel in Orkney Springs, VA .

The Orkney Springs Hotel (now called The Virginia House) served as a restful retreat for travelers who came to Orkney Springs for it’s medicinal springs. The Shrine Mont, which is an organization of the Episcopalian Diocese of Virginia, purchased the property in 1979.

The Virginia House was built in 1873 and restored by Nielsen in 1987. Currently, the building is a part of the Shrine Mont Retreat and Conference Center. Have you visited the Shrine Mont Center? Share your photos in the comments!

11/20/2025

Where was this cottage? What was its name? Did you ever stay there?

11/08/2025

Beautiful fall day on the porches.

11/04/2025

The Face in the Stone
by David Whyte

The face in the stone is a mirror looking into you.
You have gazed at the moving waters
you have seen the slow light, in the sky
above Lough Inagh, beneath you, streams have flowed,
and rivers of earth have moved beneath your feet,
but you have never looked into the immovability
of stone like this, the way it holds you, gives you
not a way forward but a doorway in, staunches
your need to leave, becomes faithful by going nowhere
something that wants you to stay here and look back,
be weathered by what comes to you, like the way you too
have travelled from so far away to be here, once reluctant
and now as solid and as here and as willing
to be touched as everything you have found.

-from The Seven Streams: An Irish Cycle
https://davidwhyte.com/store/book/the-seven-streams/

10/22/2025

It's . If you trace your roots to the Orkney area let us know.

In honor of , we're featuring the Henkels of New Market, Virginia. This prominent family included entrepreneurs and Evangelical Lutheran ministers. In 1806, Solomon and Ambrose Henkel, third-generation German immigrants, established the Henkel Press, which published many books, primers and broadsides in both English and German for the Shenandoah Valley’s German settlers.

See our Google Arts & Culture virtual exhibition on a collection of German-American rare books and broadsides from the Henkel family at http://bit.ly/LVAhenkel

10/20/2025

Scott Cottage, in the background, was the summer cottage of the Blackfords. Episcopalians, they were a part of the Episcopal enclave on the Circle present when Bishop Gibson and family arrived at the Stribling Select Boarding House. The proprietor, Anne Stribling, was an Episcopalian herself. Lancelot Blackford was principal of Episcopal High School. His wife was kin to the Gibsons and the Woodwards.

Shrine Mont in full fall mode 🍁 Mums, pumpkins, and mountain air everywhere. Just two weeks left this season — start dreaming about next year!

10/18/2025

There are 380 folks on the mountain this weekend.

10/02/2025

October is archives month and this year the theme is photographs. We will be sharing photos from the Shrine Mont archives.
Below: the front and back of View of the "Shrine Cote" taken from the North taken by Dementi Studios, Richmond.