In the Footsteps of the Picts

After breakfast we enjoy a visit to nearby Aberlemno, with its four magnificent Pictish stones. Arranged along the roadside are two pre-Christian pillar stones inscribed with mysterious Pictish symbols, along with a magnificent cross-slab carved with a hunting scene and book-wielding angels. In the churchyard is one of the finest of all Pictish cross-slabs with its famous depiction of a battle, thought by some to depict the Pictish defeat of the mighty Anglo-Saxon army at Nechtanesmere in 685 AD. We then visit a professional stone-carver, David McGovern who will give us an exclusive Pictish Stone carving demonstration.

From here we travel the short distance to St Vigeans Museum of Pictish Sculpture, which houses one of the most important collections of early medieval sculpture in Western Europe, comprising 26 stone sculptures of the 8th-10th centuries, including cross slabs, recumbent gravestones, a ‘hogback’ stone and rare architectural fragments. We then go next door to visit the old parish church, on the site of a royal Pictish monastery – a close examination of the church walls will reward us with the discovery of fragments of other stones still held fast within the medieval mortar.

Today begins with a visit to the symbol-inscribed cross-slab depicting angels and a striding cloaked figure at Eassie.  From here we continue to Perth Museum with its fine display of Pictish sculpture, and Dundee’s McManus Museum to meet a digital reconstruction of a Pictish woman.

Following breakfast we check out of the hotel and drive to St Andrews, where we see the decorated stone sarcophagus of a great Pictish king, featuring biblical royal imagery along with artistic influences showing their European connections.

Our final visit is the East Lomond Hillfort, for a specially-arranged tour led by the leader of the current archaeological investigations. We return to our original departure points.