| FOGS News Volume XII number 4 autumn equinox 2001 |
|
| 2001 Year of Contemplation |
| It is perhaps at times of world crisis that thoughts turn to what we have done and what we can still do for |
| our planet. FOGS have traditionally supported both heritage and environment and, given the possibility of |
| public funds becoming less fluid, we in Banffshire, Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire and Moray can be |
| proud of our private involvement in conserving our unique cluster of sacred monuments. While we mourn |
| with our American brothers and sisters the loss of fellow travellers, we also spare a thought for those in |
| Afghanistan who may have lost everything. Our own heritage is not in immediate danger of being wiped |
| out by a sudden coup, but we are well to remain alert to changes which may happen as a result of |
| consolidation within Europe; umbrellas, after all, should provide basics, i.e. shelter. While there remains a |
| significant gap between FOGS' concept and that of deskbound administrators within a government |
| department of what is of ancient and historical importance, there is still a place for us to keep our 'on the |
| ground' vigil. Stones are not only fine places to visit for inspiration and a great view, but they remind us |
| how our founding farming communities were motivated: to mark as sacred the changes in season, on the |
| whim of Mother Nature who still provides us with beauty all around if we have eyes to see it; or, like the |
| Picts, the demarcation of land by the placing of sacred stones for all to see. While none of us would want |
| to return to days of invoking earth spirits with sacrificial offerings in order to stay famine or plague, it is not |
| without purpose that the Northeast remains one of the most beautiful landscapes in which to contemplate |
| our beginnings - and possibly even our endings. People worldwide right now are contemplating their |
| spiritual home; their genuine priorities, their way forward. Perhaps for us it is to show to others what Nature |
| [with a little help from her FOGS friends] has kept alive these past 5000 years: call them sacred sites, |
| power points, places of astronomical anomaly or community focus - what you will - they are on our doorstep, |
| part of our spiritual heritage and worthy of our attention. |
| ©2001 Marian Youngblood |
|
| Another Pictish cross-stone |
| While attention is focused on stones - even local press have dropped their usual confrontational items to |
| cover the county-wide survey by RCAHMS - it is comforting to know that there are still stones to be |
| 'discovered' after generations of stone-hunting. Found recently, embedded in a farm steading at Bourtie, |
| is another incised cross-stone, similar in design and date to that sited in the coping of the kirkyard wall |
| surrounding the ancient little church on its hillside setting E of Inverurie. The second find is yet another |
| example of seventh/eighth century traffic of missionaries through the Northern Pictish territories at a time |
| when the spread of Christianity was in its infancy. Such crosses are simply cut, usually in a semi-portable |
| stone, with no other ornament. It has been suggested they mark 'pillows' of the saints who converted . |
| individual communities. Invariably, later medieval practice was to incorporate such cross-stones within |
| church lands or, like a similar [larger] stone at Afforsk [NJ696 208], to mark church boundaries. The |
| Bourtie stone is built into the steading in a horizontal position [NJ804 249] unlike another early cross-stone |
| in Inverurie which is built upright into the wall of the Freemasons' Hall [NJ777 214] on the High Street. |
| Sadly two further cross-stones in Inverurie at the Castlleyards [Bass kirkyard], remarked on by James |
| Ritchie in 1911, are now lost. However there are still remarkable examples of this type of sculpture at |
| Monymusk, Cothal-Fintray, Tullich, Migvie and Dunecht. For Dyce cross-stones see below. |
|
| Dyce Symbol Stones update |
| Members have been wondering when the Pictish symbol stones and their companion cross-stones are to |
| return to St Fergus's kirk, Dyce, as promised by Historic Scotland, who removed them to Edinburgh in |
| 1997. Recent response to our request for an update indicates that Historic Scotland are providing funds |
| for Aberdeen City Council to do the work of consolidating the kirk. FOGS have offered to assist in a |
| small way, e.g. with the provision of an interpretative signboard, once work is completed and a new |
| shelter is in place. According to Historic Scotland CEO Graeme Munro, this may not materialize until |
| 2002. Dyce stones may be viewed meantime by appointment at S.Gyle Conservation Centre [HS]. |
|
| RCAHMS forges on |
| Following exclusive coverage in our spring newsletter and your many letters to Parliament in support of |
| RCAHMS, the unsung heroes of the Royal Commission's ground force are continuing their massive survey |
| of Aberdeenshire, the last county in the series begun in 1908. While much has been added to the National |
| Monuments Record over recent decades, we await results with interest as the 'Strathdon' survey turns over |
| every rock. Watch this space. |
|
| Fetternear's bonus discoveries |
| Following their kind invitation to hold our 2001 AGM at the medieval Bishops' palace of Fetternear, |
| team project directors Drs Penny Dransart and Nick Bogdan excitedly revealed an array of new |
| discoveries at the excavation site outside Kemnay. In addition to expected evidence on the enormous |
| size of the palace grounds, it appears to have been the successor to a series of sacred buildings, with |
| earlier [Bronze Age] settlement occupation on high ground at the palace rear. Also on this plateau were |
| found worked flint and other tools linking the site to possible earlier use of the ground in both Neolithic |
| and even Mesolithic periods. James Kenworthy, Paul Gerderd and a keen group of volunteers [both |
| student and FOGS-based] assisted the progress of work on this most intriguing summer project. If further |
| funding can be secured to ensure an eighth season in 2002, it is possible the true strategic significance of |
| Fetternear within the history of the Pictish Church in the North may become clear. It is thought that its |
| Jesuit links at the Reformation are an indication of its dominance as an ecclesiastical centre dating not only |
| to the time of the Norman kings but to a place of sacred sanctuary or monastic foundation, the focus of |
| education, pastoral care and religious works from the Pictish era when eighth-century Class II Christian |
| carved stones begin to appear. Because of the very few Class II stones within Aberdeenshire [by |
| comparison with a relative bevvy of such beauties in Moray, around Elgin, Spynie, Gordonstoun, centred |
| on Kinneddar], any discoveries of this kind of sculpture at Fetternear would make the project directors |
| very happy indeed. |
