The Baldyquash Stone. Scotland

Here's what I like about wandering around old churches and graveyards. This is St. Peter's Church that has a history back to the 1100's. It was locked up but the signboard out front gave its history. I noted that on the back, outside wall of the church (below the Tiffany Window) that there were various stones. There was a shaft of a Celtic Cross and the stone above. It is now called the Baldyquash Stone. I know there is a Baldyquash town around here. But this stone comes from somewhere prior to 800 AD and is linked to the Pictish people.

                 

These Pictish Symbols can be found in the Aberdeenshire area and date from 400-900 AD....many pre Christian, some of them do indicate the arrival of Christianity. The one above was found somewhere around the area and included in the back wall of the church built in 1800...though records of the church indicate that St. Peter's was around as early as the 1100's and Christian communities long before that.

My point: wander around a church building and there in the wall is a stone symbol from 800 AD...climb in the car and drive on down the road. It all seems so normal.

And so the day began.......

              

This region of Scotland is filled with castles and we had a day and a car and we headed out to see a couple or three. Castles indicate old time wealth, and a community of people like servants, gardeners and the like who made the place run. While the actual sight of the castle makes one curious, it is hard to call many of them beautiful....maybe unique is the better word.

We wandered the gardens of Fyvie Castle. There were several gardeners hard at work. The larger grounds of the castle seemed to be treated like a public park by the locals. Many people were walking their dogs on the trails around the castle, gardens and lake.

                         

Last week we toured an English estate in Ireland....the tour guide had little love for the English and their centuries of subjugation of the Irish people. So what we heard were tales from the "underside" of the house. But today we were in a Scottish Castle...populated by wealthy Scots over the centuries...and our tour guide was a Scotsman who spoke reverently of the years that this castle/home existed as a home for five different families.

                   

As is typical of European wealth...the castles/estates were over the top with decorating, reflecting the tastes of the elite during various eras. For us, the sense of size and proportion are what impressed us.

                      

Estates such as this scream to others..."Look at what we have achieved!" 

OK, I get it.....but down in the servant's quarters, the house is managed by a scurrying staff that makes the place hum. Need some assistance from the staffer? Ring the bell.

                        

We went from the living quarters on one floor down a long, long set of spiraling stone stairs...into the private billiard room. I joked to the guide, that if you walked all that way from dinner and your coffee....and walked down for billiards.....and then realized you forgot your glasses....then you'd have to walk all the way back up the stone spiral stairs to fetch them.

He just laughed and said...."No, you'd just ring a bell and tell the servants to fetch the glasses!"

Oh yeah....servants.....at your beck and call.

            

I can't tell you how many miles of backroads I have driven in Scotland...and there were plenty today to get from our B&B to the town of Fresbourgh on the coast to see the Castle/Lighthouse. We were intrigued that the two were intertwined.

                

It seems the Frasure Family inhabited a castle for a few centuries but then needed to sell it off. The town of Frasureburgh needed a place for a lighthouse....and thus the two needs were met.

                

The Frasure Castle was a modest one by any stretch of the imagination but it was impressive on the rocky shore of the NE corner of Scotland. The town bought the castle. The Frasures moved somewhere else into town. The town installed a light for warning ships.

             

Lighthouse lights got bigger and they had to totally re-build part of the castle to accommodate the bigger lights. Then technology came along.

            

Lighthouse keepers and their families were constantly on the move...being assigned to various outposts. Some were more or less desirable than previous posts.

          

But eventually lights and lighthouses and that way of life of a lighthouse keeper vanished into history. I can't help comparing the calling of a lighthouse keeper and that of a minister.

 

                

That thought makes me smile and it also concerns me.

Peace,   Bob