Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict

There is a town in Scotland, about two thirds of the way between Aberdeen and Dundee, named Aberlemno. In many respects to the casual passerby or passer through (that would be me, in this case), Aberlemno is no different than many other Scottish towns and villages out there. There are fields used for farming as far as the eye can see. The roads are seemingly all too narrow and are edged with earthen berms topped by low stone walls. Maybe there are some sheep here and there. And there is an astonishing lack of actual buildings around for people to live in, although there always seems to be a parish church of some type somewhere around.

We drove through Aberlemno on a Tuesday afternoon in June. Our passing through there was no accident. In fact, it was quite deliberate. Because, really, as much as Aberlemno might resemble a lot of other Scottish towns, in one respect it is actually quite remarkably different: if you drive to the right spots in Aberlemno, you will find some carved stones standing by the side of a road or in a churchyard which have been there for more than 1,200 years. That, to us, seemed like a good reason to visit on a Tuesday afternoon, especially since we happened to be traveling from Aberdeen to Edinburgh (and past Dundee) on that very same day anyway.

The four stones in Aberlemno that we made our way deliberately to visit were carved by a group of people called the Picts between (and I guess this is estimated) 500 and 800 C.E. They weren't the only stones carved by these people found there. There were at least two others, one of which was lost (I don't know how you lose a piece of stone taller than a person...) and one of which was relocated to a museum in Dundee. They are still looking for others.

Our planned stop in Aberlemno made me wonder...who were the Picts and what else is out there in Scotland that might have been left behind by these people? Turns out there's actually quite a bit of mystery surrounding the Picts. And they sure did leave a lot of stuff behind.

Detail, top back side of the Roadside Cross, Aberlemno.

If you had asked me before our trip to Scotland this year to sum up the last say couple of thousand years in that corner of the planet, I'm not really sure how good a job I could have done. I could probably have spit out something about Hadrian's Wall in the second century C.E. and probably could have thrown out names like Robert the Bruce and William Wallace before boldly claiming that Scottish resistance to English rule was brutally squashed at the Battle of Culloden. Beyond that? Railways and bridges and ships, maybe? Industrial revolution and all that stuff?

But the details and the timing of all that? Maybe not so clear. I might not even have been close to within a hundred years or so.

Now if you had really pushed me for some more details on this history stuff, I might have used words like Picts and paganism and Celts and Gaels and I might have intertwined and interrelated all these concepts. But honestly, I just wouldn't have had the faintest real clue. So faced with a town like Aberlemno where there was a real opportunity to fill in some giant gaps in my understanding of Scottish history...well, I was all in! I needed to know about these Picts. And I guess the Gaels and Celts too if they happened to be in the story.

Maclean's Cross, Iona.

So first of all, the Picts were not what they called themselves. Apparently, the name was what the Romans called the people living in the north of what is now Britain. You know, the part of the island that Rome could claim they conquered but then couldn't hold on to. The Picts (or whoever they really were) weren't much help here with their own name or names. They had a tendency to not write stuff down so whatever they were called as well as what they did or built and how they lived is all pretty much lost to history.

And there were Celts and Gaels in the mix here who may or may not have been the same people as the Picts. The Celts were a peoples who were living in the British Isles before anyone who kept any sort of history at all was around that part of the world. The Celts were just there in Britain at some point when other groups (like the Romans and the Vikings and the Normans) started showing up and trying to take over. The Gaels were from Ireland, but they definitely had a presence in Scotland, particularly on the west coast near...well...Ireland. Big surprise there. So yes...Picts, Celts and Gaels...all in Scotland at some point. But let's stick with the Picts for this post.

For some reason, and I know it's my own personal cultural bias in operation here, I assumed that the Picts north of The Wall (of Hadrian) were all pagans. Which is totally true. Long ago, before history was written down in northern Britain, the people living there worshipped nature and maybe gods long forgotten. There were certainly offerings and sacrifices (not saying human, necessarily) for things like good harvests, and they built rings of stones and other temple-like places to seemingly relate to things like the solstices.

At some point, paganism started to fade and Christianity made its way to the Picts. Not likely through written books translated into English or Olde English or any other sort of written language. Likely there were monks or missionaries or priests or saints (or whatever) that started to reach the people in the north and talk about Christ and the gospels and all that. Eventually, stuff began to stick.

Two of the stones at Aberlemno. The Serpent Stone (top) and the Roadside Cross (bottom).

In Aberlemno, you can see hints of all of this transition between religions and much more.

As you drive into town, there are a series of three large stones on the left hand side of the road, carved to various degrees of precision and detail. Two of the stones (known today as the Serpent Stone and the Crescent Stone) depict symbols from nature, one clearly marked at the top with a depiction of a snake and the other less clearly carved with some faint crescent shapes. Maybe the moon. Although the plaque next to the Crescent Stone does not make that speculation.

The third stone, and the most massive of the three, is an intricately carved cross with angels flanking either side of the shaft of the cross on the front of the stone. On the rear face of the stone, there are representations of a hunting scene along with a centaur gathering medicinal herbs and David saving his flock of sheep from a lion. At the top of the back side of the stone, there is the same crescent shape (shown above) found on the Crescent Stone and some Pictish symbols, similar to those found on the Serpent Stone.

If there's any evidence needed that the Picts were both pagan and Christian, to me it shows up clearly in these three stones. Two of the three are devoid of any reference to Christianity; the third is a clear mixture of the two. For me, though, the fact that these stones show a transition from paganism to Christianity isn't the point here. I mean it's cool as an indication of history, I guess, but that's not what I got out of our visit to Aberlemno.

The real beauty in these things for me is the fact that they have lasted more than 1,200 years and that they are carved so intricately by a peoples who must still have been using most of their waking hours just to stay alive. I can't imagine what the people who made these things would have thought if they knew someone in the 21st century from an ocean away was driving by in a rented Honda Jazz to look at what they carved. It staggers my imagination.

The Crescent Stone. The carvings are barely visible but it is like 1,500 years old or something.

If I was impressed by the three stones by the side of the road (and I was), I still had one more to see at the Aberlemno Parish Church in the middle of the graveyard. It was placed there after the church was built, rather than the church being built where the stone stood.

The churchyard stone is the most interesting of the four stones we saw in the town, not only due to the artistry and the intricacy of the carving but also for the historical document that it is. There is a large cross on one side of the stone which is carved in what I can only articulate as a Celtic design. The cross itself is filled in with patterning that looks sort of rope-like, much like the jewelry we saw in souvenir shops in Ireland almost three years ago. Animal figures fill in the space between the cross and the edge of the stone.

The other side depicts a battle scene, what historians believe might be the Battle of Dún Nechtain in the year 685, a battle waged between the Picts and the invading Northumbrians led by King Ecgfrith. The Picts, as carvers of the stone, clearly won. This scene represents not just a work of art but a story told by people who are no longer around to be able to relay their history. I know I just poo-pooed the historical nature of the other three stones but this one is way cooler. This shows an actual event, not just a change in religious representation or focus. I'm sure the battle was way more chaotic than the stone represents, by the way. And I'm sure King Ecgfrith didn't succumb to the raven attacking him in quite the way the stone shows.

The Churchyard Cross, front side and back side, Aberlemno.

Aberlemno was actually the last place on this trip that we visited to see stones that were carved by the Picts. In terms of quantity and variety, it was clearly the best. There was no other site we visited that had more than one. But we did see others that were perhaps better quality.

Aberlemno was the last Pictish stones site that we added to our itinerary. The first places I planned on this trip were the Hebridean islands of Islay, Mull and Lewis and as it turned out there are ancient Pictish stones on the Isle of Islay and on Iona just off the west coast of Mull. We actually started building our Pictish stones journey from those places and couldn't resist the quick detour off the Aberdeen to Edinburgh path once we found out about Aberlemno. Visiting a single stone doesn't tell the same sort of story as visiting four in one site, but I think there was still a lot of value in chasing these things down.

Perhaps the most famous and most important of the carvings we found was Maclean's Cross on the Island of Iona. Maclean's Cross was produced way, way later than the stones we found at Aberlemno. It was placed on Iona around the year 1500 as a marker for pilgrims on their way to Iona Abbey, one of the most important early centers of Christianity in Scotland. The cross is enormous and covered with carvings of patterns around a central picture of the crucifixion of Christ. Unlike the stones in Aberlemno, it's actually cross shaped. As a work of art, it's impressive, particularly in its size and detail. It's also probably most famous for being where it is as much as for what it is. Among its many claims to fame, Iona Abbey may have been the place where the Book of Kells, now prominently on display in Dublin's Trinity College, was written before it was moved to save it from potential raids by the Vikings.

The back side of Maclean's Cross, Iona.

I can't say if someone who knows way more about this subject has ever produced any sort of list of the best Pictish carved stones in Scotland or anything like that. If there is, I'm not sure what we saw at Aberlemno or Iona would make the list. Impressive? Sure. Even the fact that these things are still around today is impressive. But I'd have to think the first stone we looked for and found might stand a chance of making such a list. That stone would be the Kildalton Cross on the Isle of Islay.

I don't know what it is about the Kildalton Cross exactly that makes it so impressive, unless I just say it was everything about the Cross that blew me away. Of all the carvings we found on our trip, this was clearly the most complex and most well executed. Its form is a ring-headed or Celtic cross, a crucifix with a circle superimposed at the crossing of the two arms. It's massive and it's intact, which is super-impressive considering it dates from about the year 700, older by far than Maclean's Cross and perhaps even older than some of those at Aberlemno.

The decoration on the Cross is detailed with patterning and biblical scenes and the decoration is not only carved into the plane of the cross but also "attached" to the front of the cross. I guess "attached" is the right word, although maybe not if the Cross was carved from a single stone. It is a true work of art. It's also in the same spot it was originally erected in the courtyard of the former parish church of Kildalton. It's incredible that it's even in this spot still standing. The things this cross must have seen over the last 1200 or 1300 years...

Kildalton Cross, Islay.

There were two other factors working in favor of Kildalton Cross being the most impressive we saw in Scotland. First, the weather was perfect. The sun shining on the front side of the cross made every carved piece of the stone pop to life. I know it's superficial to credit sunlight as making a carving more memorable but it was absolutely true. We had great weather much of the time we were in Scotland but not at the exact times we were on Iona or in Aberlemno. The sun helped Kildalton Cross immensely.

Finally, Kildalton Cross is frustratingly challenging to get to. It's located past the three southern coast of Islay distilleries after the two lane paved road becomes a two-way, one lane road which is definitely a bit more overgrown and not-cleared than a lot of the other two-way, one lane roads we traveled down in Scotland. And there's actual traffic coming the other way and not exactly plentiful passing places. Make it all the way to the old parish church and your reward is the finest piece of Pictish carving we found in our limited search in Scotland. The journey definitely makes the payoff better.

The magnificent front of Kildalton Cross in full sunlight.

Our pilgrimage to find ancient Pictish carvings in Scotland was really a result of finding out that these sorts of works were in places where we were going anyway. We went to Islay to learn about whisky; we went to Mull to see wildlife; and we had to travel past Aberlemno on the way from one place we really wanted to go (Dunnottar Castle south of Aberdeen) to the final stop on our Scotland trip (Edinburgh). We thought taking a quick detour on Islay and Mull before hitting Aberlemno would string together some similar sights that would get us a little bit of exposure to a bit of history made by peoples whose history is mostly long forgotten. Or maybe it's preserved in what we saw and many other similar carvings that we didn't see.

In many ways, it would have been a better experience if we had made the trip in reverse and ended up on Islay last. It would, I think, have made Kildalton Cross that much more impressive. But that's not how we planned this trip and I have no regrets about doing it the way we did it. If I ever get back to Islay, I will have to go back to the old Kildalton Parish Church. Not holding my breath there. For now, I'll stick with the memory of 2022. 

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How We Did It

Of all the carved stones we found in Scotland, Aberlemno is probably the easiest to get to, if for no other reason that it's on mainland Britain. We just plugged in Aberlemno into our navigation app and after taking many lefts and rights on the (barely) two lane road to the town, we drove past three stones on the left hand side of the road. There's a parking lot just beyond the stones that has some informational signage and replica stone depicting the battle scene of the Churchyard Cross. Park the car, cross the road (remember traffic is on the left) and walk down to see the Roadside Cross, Crescent Stone and Serpent Stone. If you want to see these stones, better come when it's not winter; apparently they cover them in winter to protect the stones from the elements.

The parish church can be found by traveling a bit further north up the same road and taking a left toward the church. We didn't find any sort of parking at the church but just pulled over and accessed the courtyard. I'm not sure we parked legally but there was literally nobody in sight. No harm, no foul here.

Getting to Kildalton Cross and Maclean's Cross is a bit more involved because it will involve at least one boat and a combination of two more boats or planes. To get to Kildalton Cross, drive east from Port Ellen past Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg distilleries and follow the signs to the Cross. There's also a walking trail on the south side of the road but it's a long walk all the way to the Cross.

We found Maclean's Cross by being dropped off at the ferry landing on Iona and walking straight up the hill and hanging a right after passing the ruins of the old nunnery. It's not much of a walk to the Cross and you can't realistically walk past it without missing it.

My understanding of the history of the Picts and the Gaels and the Celts and when they worshipped nature vs. Christ wasn't helped much by any of our visits to these sites. I managed to find a book called A Pocket History of Scotland at the Battle of Bannockburn Experience near Stirling which told me pretty much all I needed to know about Scottish history in an easy to read format. It cost me all of £5.99 and it's been worth its weight in gold. I can't remember buying a book this small for this low a price that has helped me so much, although I'll dispute the "pocket" label just a bit. Not saying I don't have pockets I can fit this book into, but I certainly have a lot of pockets that it won't fit into.

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