Scotland for Twenty: The Church Interior and Ancient Henge

We gave the church door in Kilmartin a little push, and it opened. One thing I noticed about Scotland is that it seemed they are very trusting. They trust you to do the right thing. Church doors and castle doors are left open. Just take care of it, and shut the door when you leave, it seemed to say. CC kept saying, "Just give it a little push." for the rest of our time.

I loved that this church was still a meeting place each Sunday. I opened a hymnal and found "Soon and Very Soon." The church immediately brought back memories of my Granny's and Papa's church in Hillsville, Virginia. Likely renovated in the interior about the time their church was built, it had the exact look. The pews, the numbers for the attendance count, and the smell. Suddenly I was 5 years old, sitting by my Granny while the old ladies sang. Soon and Very Soon, we are going to see the King. As we decided to take our kids back to Scotland this Christmas for one last adventure before Firstborn flies away, I will take them in this church.

This cross was from the 9th century, taken from the graveyard and brought in for preservation.

We did a quick tour of the Kilmartin museum. The dear Scottish lady who sold us our tickets showed us her work schedule for Christmas so she could see if she would be working when we bring our children. So sweet! The museum was chock-full of interesting findings from this area. I snapped these pictures from the window inside.

We drove down the road just a bit. Some of the things we found were the result of a bit of investigative and map-studying work by CC. He wanted to see the ancient stones and henge.

And we found some! There are 350 ancient monuments all over this area...standing stones that somehow line up with solstices and burial cairns. I wondered at the rituals and superstitious beliefs that prevailed. It was a little odd to see them all lined up in a formation, so old and a little mysterious.