Category: Uncategorized

Just inside the entrance, there is a soldier with a list. He is sitting behind a collapsable picnic table. He holds out his hand and I pass him the letter from my inside pocket. 

The soldier examines it, searches his list and strikes off my name with a pink highlighter. He drops my letter into a cardboard box.

“Join the line sir.”

I join the line, feet squarely on the red tape X on the floor.

     vaccination
     the nurses’ mask
     slips

Kirkbean Parish has many connections with the United States, so it is perhaps fitting that the distinctive former Parish Church was built in 1776 – the year of American Independence.

However, the upper tower was not added until 1835. Towards the end of the 19th century, the sanctuary was refurbished with Victorian church furnishings.

Kirkbean Church was the oldest church in the combined parish of Colvend, Southwick and Kirkbean until it closed for public services in November 2010. It is now a private dwelling.

The graveyard contains the rather plain slab-stone grave of John Paul Jones‘ father who had been a gardener at nearby Arbigland House. The graveyard, which remains accessible to the public, is a rich source of family history.

Although the current building dates from 1776, earliest indications of a Christian presence in Kirkbean come from the 12th century when the parish was under the patronage of the Benedictine Nuns at Lincluden. They maintained a vicarage at Kirkbean until the end of the 14th century.

The pillars at both sides of the entrance bear the names of those of the parish who served in WW1 and survived, a nice touch.

Release

The sky is full of voices
and trees play hide and seek,
as rivers laugh their way
to sand castle beaches.

Locks unlock and gates
swing on fresh oiled hinges,
we breath in fresh cut grass,
and people are people again.



Derek Ross

Stake Nets

These stake nets;
stitch the sands to the sky,
knit the present to the past,
join the horizon
to where we stand.

These stake nets;
are slowly parting
as years stretch the thread,
unpicking our story,
leaving us divided…

…leaving us behind.


Derek Ross

Little Dalton Kirk

The ruins of Little Dalton Kirk (DUMFRIESSHIRE, SCOTLAND) can be found on the banks of the Dalton Burn to the NW of the village of Dalton. It lies off the road from Dormont and Mouswald and can be easily missed. The Kirk dates from the  15th century with some masonary dating to a 13th century predecessor. It served the community of Little Dalton and its lords. The village lay on the lands of Holmain, seat of the Carruthers family, one of which fought with Robert the Bruce. The village was a thriving crofting community until the 16th century when the village declined. The Kirk was finally abandoned in 1633 but the graveyard  was used until 1788. There is a table gravestone in memory of Dr William Carruthers dated 1764.

Once, a fairly common sight along the Solway Coast, the Scottish side anyway. Now, most seem unused and remind me of skeletons. These are some images of the Stakenets between Sandyhills and Portling on the Solway coast. (Oh , and some horses. )

The remains of the former parish church, rebuilt in 1741 incorporating the remains of its predecessor and in use until 1878 when its successor was built.

Norman fragments survive and a 10th.c Anglian cross-shaft (now in Dumfries Museum) and a grave-slab of similar date, preserved in the porch of the modern church in 1920, but now also in Dumfries Museum, are probably from this site, although located only to Closeburn.

The remains consist of an E gable wall 30′ long and 3′ thick with an arched and moulded doorway, a circular window and a belfry which contained a bell dated 1606. “Closeburn” was in 1200 “Kylosbern”, said to be a commemoration of an English saint, but Osbran was an Irish bishop and anchorite who died in 752.

The bell from the belfry still exists and was still “in situ” until recently. It is inscribed:-

+TREGINTA+DE+AGVST+APVD.POTERRAW

+ANNO+DOMINI+1606

Dalton Old Parish Church      

A wee gem of a category A ruin. The ruin we see was built in 1704 and was built on the base of the walls of an earlier church which may date from the 12th century. Some of the base of the earlier church can be seen along the North side. There are stone stairs at each gable which lead to gallery doors. There is an impressive round (bullseye) window on the eastern gable. The Carruthers family features on many of the tombstones and monuments.

The ruin shares the grounds with the present Parish Church which was built in 1895, super seeding the old church.. Although a category B building it is pretty plain in comparison but it does have an interesting tower.

Cairnholy

A pair of Clyde-type chambered cairns situated on a hillside above Wigtown Bay at Kirkdale Glen, near Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway. Cairnholy may be derived from “Cairn Ulaidh”’ meaning “Treasure Cairn”. The smaller of the two cairns is also called “The Tomb of Galdus”, which is highly unlikely as the cairn was ancient even in Galdus’ day.

“Cairn Ulaidh”, the treasure cairn,
and further up, “The Tomb of Galdus”,
lie bared above Wigtown Bay.
The earth of the mounds
has gone the way of flesh,
has seeped into the hill,
leaving only stone skeletons
and corrupted names.

There are those
who dig deep in such places.
Here they found a jade axe,
the tip of an arrow,
cup and ring marks,
and beneath the threshold,
the impressions of hearths,
signs of ritual fire.

It is that old mystery,
life and death,
time turning, renewal.
Cairnholy just confirms
that there are no new questions.
Here we ask ourselves,
and with the mortar of wonder,
build our own monuments.


Derek Ross.