Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear...
Aug. 12th, 2010 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endlessraritiesToday started off really well. As I got into the car to go to work, I spotted a very small, and very brief, though rather colourful sundog. Good start.
I was off to Galston for the last time (ha, ha...). So I thought I'd go snooping in the graveyard and bring back some photographs of the Covenanters' Graves there.
Covenanters are Scotland's answer to the Taleban - a bunch of 16th century fundamentalists who refused to accept the form of Christian worship the State insisted that they follow. The State was not blameless in the affair - these aren't called 'The Killing Times' for nothing... If you want to learn more, read the novel Ringan Gilhazie by John Galt. It's a 19th century tome and pretty impregnable, but... For an insight into the mindsight of the religious zealots at the time, it's pretty good. The Covenanters still have a loyal following in Ayrshire - fresh flowers are often placed at their graves and commemorative monuments.
Anyway, here's my first photograph of the day:-
I was off to Galston for the last time (ha, ha...). So I thought I'd go snooping in the graveyard and bring back some photographs of the Covenanters' Graves there.
Covenanters are Scotland's answer to the Taleban - a bunch of 16th century fundamentalists who refused to accept the form of Christian worship the State insisted that they follow. The State was not blameless in the affair - these aren't called 'The Killing Times' for nothing... If you want to learn more, read the novel Ringan Gilhazie by John Galt. It's a 19th century tome and pretty impregnable, but... For an insight into the mindsight of the religious zealots at the time, it's pretty good. The Covenanters still have a loyal following in Ayrshire - fresh flowers are often placed at their graves and commemorative monuments.
Anyway, here's my first photograph of the day:-
Is it a bank vault? Is it a prison? Is it a footballer's house?
No, it's a graveyard. And yet it's completely enclosed by vicious fencing, padlocks, anti-climb paint, etcetera. There's a little sign warning of dangerous headstones, but these headstones must be armed with kalazhnikovs or mobile rocket launchers to warrant this kind of enclosure. Perhaps there are velociraptors loose in there...
The real reason I suspect is much more banal. Presumably the locals have been shooting up, slugging down the buckfast, and jumping on the monuments.
It's so embarrassing. In a town labelled 'The Heart of Historic Ayrshire', it's a disgrace that visitors can't even take an afternoon stroll through the graveyard to see the local monuments.
So, I'm sorry I couldn't bring you the Covenanters' Graves. Here instead are some views of the church, caged within its modern fencing:-
No, it's a graveyard. And yet it's completely enclosed by vicious fencing, padlocks, anti-climb paint, etcetera. There's a little sign warning of dangerous headstones, but these headstones must be armed with kalazhnikovs or mobile rocket launchers to warrant this kind of enclosure. Perhaps there are velociraptors loose in there...
The real reason I suspect is much more banal. Presumably the locals have been shooting up, slugging down the buckfast, and jumping on the monuments.
It's so embarrassing. In a town labelled 'The Heart of Historic Ayrshire', it's a disgrace that visitors can't even take an afternoon stroll through the graveyard to see the local monuments.
So, I'm sorry I couldn't bring you the Covenanters' Graves. Here instead are some views of the church, caged within its modern fencing:-
Architecturally speaking, you're not really missing much. It's a typical Ayrshire church of 19th century date. Plain, austere, and no nonsense. In short, it's rather Presbyterian....
Unfortunately, I finished work so late that I missed horse-riding. Ah well... C'est la vie...
Later on tonight, we might be going out to see if we can spot some meteors. That'd be fun. Starting the day with a sundog and ending it with a meteor shower... I must be mad. I'm getting up at 6 tomorrow.
My destination?? Galston. For the last time, I hope...
Unfortunately, I finished work so late that I missed horse-riding. Ah well... C'est la vie...
Later on tonight, we might be going out to see if we can spot some meteors. That'd be fun. Starting the day with a sundog and ending it with a meteor shower... I must be mad. I'm getting up at 6 tomorrow.
My destination?? Galston. For the last time, I hope...
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 07:22 pm (UTC)You are right...for a church, this hardly looks inviting! More like "enter at your own peril".
no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 07:44 pm (UTC)People call acts of savagery in the modern times 'medieval' - in Scotland, the 16th and 17th centuries were far more unpleasant with the witch burning, and the religious wars, and the torturing...
no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 07:14 am (UTC)