In search of Pictish stones

As I mentioned in the last post, I gave the studio a miss yesterday afternoon and went in search of carved symbol stones in the next village, about 5 miles away. Ola had the idea that we should go by bike, borrowing a couple of the rusting old heaps they have lying about the workshop... Most of them had tyres flatter than my sister's chest (I can say that - she doesn't read this!! And anyway, I can't talk - growing up we were fried eggs and pancake!!!!) and no brakes, but we managed to find two boneshakers that would just about do. (Above: Stephie in the village of Rynnie)

View on the road to Rynnie

The winding road was beautiful, but the ride would have been even more enjoyable if the highly advanced 3-speed Sturmy Archer gears would actually go into any gear but third! Downhill was a dream, but uphill was the predictable nightmare; I had to struggle to keep up with the young and fit Pole on a marginally better, but overly large bike ahead! Today though, I feel fine - even on good form! (How long has it been since I could say that?!!)

We found our first Pictish stones in Rynnie cemetry. There was a whole load of them leaning against a stone wall, they were covered in what looked like skull and crossbones and I like to think that pirates were buried there, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case at all!


After examining these, we clambered over the cemetry wall and up a hill to a standing stone at the top. It was just the sort we'd been hoping to find; to my delight it was carved with a creature with a bird-like head, and a fish above! It's in the most amazing countryside, with wonderful views towards the hill of Tap O' Noth, and the yellow lichen on the stone added a vibrancy to the rich autumn colours hereabouts.

Symbol stone near Rynnie with the Tap O'Noth hill in the background

left:symbol stone with fish above and creature below; middle: Ola says "it's mine, all mine!";
right:Ola being heroic on the way to the top of the hill to find the stone!


After this we went to find a the remains of a stone circle nearby which were in beech spinney at the top of small hill (left). We were helped to find this by a very friendly local farmer, who directed us across his field of cows to the top. He told us that when he was very young you could see the circle in its entirety, but that the farmer that owned the land that it was on used it as a place to dump his rubbish, and over the years it's got covered up. He told us that there are now plans to excavate it. I think this would be brilliant. The stones are in a wonderful spot, and if the trees weren't there you'd have 360 degree views of the countyside around. Beside the only large stone that we could find Ola posed as a heroic Pict (note the staff!), just before the camera battery ran out...


Next we decided to ride another three and a half miles to a village called Clatt to see some more symbol stones that were marked on the map. After the hard journey (for me!) we were disappointed not to be able to find them. Still, there was one in the kirkyard - another one with skull and crossbones, but we'd wanted to find more with mythical creatures. By now we noticed that the sun was going down and remembered that we had no lights and that we'd also been invited out to dinner at 7pm... If we could have got our skates on I certainly would have, I think it would probably have been quicker than the bike!!

We got back to Lumsden at 7 on the dot, got quickly changed and back on the bikes to Hazel's house. Hazel runs her own businss in arts and health and had invited us to dinner to meet two other artists she has staying with her at the moment. Jelka (I hope that's right) is on a residency in the nearby town of Huntly and hails from Berlin, and Kath (who's stuff you can see on the SSW site) hails from the Yorkshire coast (and has a grand accent!). It was a great end to the evening, with lots of chat, laughter, baked fresh-from-the-ground beetroot and plenty of red wine. (It was a bit of a red evening - my face was still very pink from all the exhertion when we arrived!) It was also a wonderful ending to the closing hours of my residency here...