After a leisurely play with the dogs and a slow breakfast - and importantly for Luke, watching the end of "Frozen", we went with Jane to Destiny Church, Leith. It was into the afternoon before we left Edinburgh with a 3 hour drive ahead of us. We planned a stop about half way and turned off the main road at Forfar. We tootled along looking for somewhere to stop for lunch and we found a fabulous ruin: Restenneth Priory.
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| A beautiful ruin in a field up a little track right off the main road. |
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| It is SO good to have great signage - we can learn so much! |
King David I keeps cropping up - I just read up about him yesterday at
St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh and here he is quite some miles away
in Forfar.
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| Incredible that these type of relics remain! |
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| Doorways were quite narrow - obviously no overweight monks! |
More research revealed more detail. The oldest masonry, in the surviving tower, indicates a church was on the site during Alexander's reign (1107-24). David I (1124 - 1153), Alexander's younger brother is believed to have established this priory for Augustinian canons.
However this site is in the middle of the old Pictish Kingdom and there was a church at Restenneth from 710 AD built by King Nechtan. It was then probably called Egglespethir! It may have even been the Pictish church dedicated to St Peter! Oh, history is so interesting...it is hard to digest it all!
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| No idea what this symbol meant but I am sure we saw similar in London on the kerbsides and no one could tell us what the symbol meant then! (an addendum: Kirsten added: " the arrow symbol on the stone is probably a surveying benchmark, used to check the level of the stone/height of the land" - thanks Kirsten!) |
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| A beautiful setting! |
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| It is hard to imagine this place being a thriving hub! |
Another stop was needed for toilet purposes as of course the priory didn't provide us with such. Even with a quick pop in to a fast food outlet - without purchasing any food - the scenery was very lovely with the subtle colours and dark clouds gathering.
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| Roadside beauty |
We arrived back to our cottage in Kirkton of Rayne in time for a quick pasta sort of dinner. Luke is most distressed about a wobbly tooth with is hanging by a thread and he won't twist it! The other tooth fell out last night with minimal hassle but for some reason, this one is causing a problem.
Glad to see you are still enjoying Scotland. That arrow symbol on the stone is probably a surveying benchmark, used to check the level of the stone/height of the land?
ReplyDeleteThanks Kirsten - I have added your comment under the photo in the text! Hope all is well with you!
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