Photo: iStock / Rural Scottish Cross
SUMMER is a good time to visit and reflect on the land of Scotland and the cultural and spiritual influences which infuse it.
Churches often seem to embody that sense of different places that tugs at the heart-strings, and communicates a feeling of continuity with the past. We know, or think we know, what a church is for, and in churchyards we know the meaning of tombstones. The early Christian crosses found all over Scotland are in many cases much more enigmatic: people are still arguing about the meanings of the sculptured motifs on Pictish stones. Whatever their meanings they are well worth seeking out, both in their original settings, and indoors in churches and museums.