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Dunfermline Abbey (part 1): echoes of majesty
The first in a two-part feature looking at Dunfermline Abbey and Palace There can be no better time to walk around Dunfermline Abbey than a cold November day, when the last leaves are clinging to...
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Dunfermline Abbey (part 2): pride of kings
Concluding my two-part feature about Dunfermline Abbey and Palace “The King sits in Dunfermline town, Drinking the blude-red wine…” ‘Sir Patrick Spens’, Anon (17th Century) I can remember reading these...
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St Mary’s Church, Grandtully
Tucked away in a fold of green fields above the River Tay, at the end of a very narrow and bumpy track, is one of the most extraordinary churches I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t even look like a church from...
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The Palace of Holyroodhouse
David Rizzio, anonymous portrait from the Royal Collection The glass case was full of the most exquisite treasures: miniature portraits, little silver toothpicks, brooches and rings and small duelling...
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Holyrood Abbey
Just to the side of the Palace of Holyroodhouse is a much older building, dark and glowering and impressive. This is where the story began… There can be few places in Scotland that can remember as...
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In a nutshell: Cardoness Castle
Violence… plunder… feuding… it all went on at Cardoness Castle. A mile or so from Gatehouse of Fleet in south-west Scotland, this was the seat of the McCullochs, a notoriously lawless bunch. The...
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Carnbane Castle and a banquet for a bard
“At the foot of Glenlyon, on a high declivitous bank and anciently defended by a drawbridge, are the ruins of a castle…” The Topographical, Statistical and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland, 1853 We...
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St Adamnan’s Cross in Glen Lyon
Further up Glen Lyon from Carnbane Castle, the valley widens slightly and opens out with views of distant mountains, which, on a cold afternoon in February, were cloaked in snow and shadowed in powdery...
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St Moluag’s Cathedral on the Isle of Lismore
“The pure, the bright, the pleasant, the sun of Lismore; that is Moluoc, of Lismore in Alba”. The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee When the peace-loving missionaries started to come over from Ireland...
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The Ballymeanoch stones, Kilmartin
Kilmartin Glen is the most remarkable place, full of ancient sites such as Dunchraigaig burial chamber and the Nether Largie standing stones, guarded to the south by the hill fort of Dunadd. I’m now...
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Ardchattan: in the footsteps of St Baodan
“Upon a high ridge behind the Priory are the church and burying-ground of St. Baodan, the patron saint of the parish.” ‘Deirdre and The Lay of the Children of Uisne’ translated by Alexander...
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Rosslyn Chapel: catching the light
Mention Rosslyn Chapel in a sentence, and at some deeper level you’re immediately aware of a whole can of metaphysical worms being opened. You can almost see them writhing around. Many of the places I...
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Rosslyn Castle – falling shadows
“Rosslyn Glen was settled by the Bronze Age and is the largest surviving tract of ancient woodland in Midlothian, in which over two hundred species of flowering plants and sixty species of breeding...
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Prehistoric rock art at Achnabreck
There are few historical sites about which absolutely nothing is known: even when folklore and tradition have little to say, there’s usually some carbon dating of organic remains that will yield a...
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Temple Wood stone circles, Kilmartin Glen
Rather than marking one specific moment in time, like a belief or a deeply-held wish that has been expressed and then apparently abandoned, some ancient sites have evolved slowly over thousands of...
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Culross Palace: glowing with splendour
The first thing that strikes you about Culross Palace is its colour. Rich mustard yellow walls beneath an orange pantiled roof glow with warmth even on overcast days, making you wonder if you’ve have...
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Kilmartin Glen: Nether Largie South
I’ve said this before, and I’m sure you’ll forgive me for saying it again: Kilmartin Glen is an absolute joy. I’ve already written about the standing stones at Ballymeanoch and Nether Largie, the...
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Culross Abbey
Just a short walk up the hillside from the brilliance and the opulence of Culross Palace lies an intriguing pile of ruins, watched over by a parish church. It’s a lovely, peaceful place, undisturbed...
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Loch Avich and the Castle of the Red-haired Girl
We were driving along the minor road that winds its way up into the hills above Kilmelford and then drops down towards Dalavich on Loch Awe. Blue sky, warm sunshine, cherry blossom, a cuckoo on a...
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The Pictish stone of Fowlis Wester
Some of the churches in Perthshire contain the most extraordinary things. I discovered this a while back, in the little village of Dunning; and it was confirmed again last weekend, when I stepped...
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