Nothing delights us more in Scotland than coming across a picturesque old castle or a ruined abbey, whose mere presence in a wild and isolated landscape or its changing reflections on the quiet waters of a loch invite us to approach and find out more…

Today, in memory of our beloved daughter who was a great fan of Scotland (& Ireland) and who shared with us our love of castles, Celtic culture, ancient sites and sacred places, I have decided to introduce “The route of sacred sites in Scotland”, a new series on Scotiana, aimed to explore some of the many mysterious and sacred sites scattered all over Scotland.

The first post of this new series will take us to Inchmahome Priory, a 13th abbey whose romantic ruins stand amid lush vegetation on the largest of the three islands of the Lake of Menteith.  It is situated in the heart of the Trossachs, three miles east of Aberfoyle and just 17 miles from Stirling.

Inchmahome on the Lake of Menteith …

 

“Close to Gartmore*, lies the Lake of Menteith. On its island of Inchmahome stands Inchmahome Priory,
founded in 1238 by Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham’s ancestor, Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith.”

  (The Cunninghame Graham Society)

We visited Inchmahome on a bright summer day on 22 August 2007.

This place is remarkable and must be such in all seasons, not only because of its quiet and beautiful setting but also because of the picturesque ruins which stand there in the shade of very ancient trees.

The ruins  shelter many treasures. This mysterious place triggers curiosity and stimulates the imagination, opening doors to the past and… to the unseen…

* Gartmore is a village situated in the Stirling council area. From there you can see the Wallace Monument in Stirling, almost 25 miles away. One of the villages more famous residents was Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham who loved living at Gartmore House, the Graham family seat.

 

Our visit to Inchmahome left us with unforgettable memories…

A Lake ?

Yes, why a ‘lake’ and not a ‘loch’?

 

 

” The unusual name “Lake of Menteith” is believed to be due to the UK Government’s Ordnance Survey in 1838 who mapped the area for the first time, and identified it as a “lake” because it was referred to as a lake in literature that was prominent at the time”.  Could this be an allustion to Walter Scott’s famous novel, The Lady of the Lake, published in 1810? (Wikipedia)

For those who would like to know more, I found a well-documented document published by Nick Aitchison in The Journal of Scottish Name Studies.

Nick Aitchison seems to know and love this place well, as he recalls.:  ” I am indebted to my parents, Norma and Dr James Aitchison, for introducing me to the Lake of Menteith, several subsequent visits over the years and for sparking my interest in its name.” He wrote many articles about ancient sites and also a book about the Stone of Destiny.

Inchmahome (“inch” means island in Gaelic) is the largest of three islands, Inch Talla and Dog Island (not featured on the above map) being the other two.

The name “Inchmahome” comes from the Gaelic Innis MoCholmaig, which means “island of St Colman*“.

The name of Inchtalla or Inch Talla derives from the Gaelic words innis (“island”) and “talla” (“hall”).

In the very useful appendix of Martin Coventry’s  Churches and Abbeys of Scotland,  which is devoted to the lives of the saints, I found a paragraph dedicated to St Colman.

*Colman (605-676): there are many Irish saints with this name. The most famous in Scotland was a monk from Iona who followed Finian as abbot of Lindisfarne. He led the Celtic party at the Synod of Whitby, although he lost the debate and withdrew to Iona. There are dedications to Colman at Inchmahome in Stirlingshire and Tarbat in Easter Ross. Festival day: 8 August.

 

 

The lake, with its three islands, its giant chestnuts, now stag-headed* and about to fall,
the mouldering priory, the long church with its built-up, five-light window,
the castle, overgrown with brushwood, and with a tree springing up from the middle hall, the heronry…

(From “Mist In Menteith” –  A Hatchment, R. B. Cunninghame Graham 1913)

*The expression stag-headed tree refers to trees that have reached a very old age and have a crown that resembles the shape of a stag’s antlers.

The crossing of the lake…

Once you arrive at Port Menteith, wait on the jetty. Two little motor boats, the Mary Queen of Scots and the Earl of Menteith, are ready to take you to Inchmahome. The crossing to the island is about seven minutes.

If the boat is not waiting at the pier when you arrive, turn the wooden board so that the white side faces the island, which will prompt the ferry to return.

As you approach Inchmahome you can’t but fall under the spell of such a lovely and peaceful place. There is the lapping of the water, the colours – dominant blue that day – the ducks and wild geese flying overhead and a majestic swan gliding along the shore as if to welcome you there… un vrai petit coin de paradis! 😉

 

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The ruins of Inchmahome Priory

Des ruines qui en disent long…

 

As the little motor boat approaches Inchmahome, the ruins of the priory slowly emerge from the lush vegetation covering the island and soon it is an entire section of the old church that is coming into view…

The Church

The church must have been the highest edifice of the area and it was certainly the most important place for the canons. They spent many hours there, day and night.

Oriented east-west and situated on the northern side of the priory, the well-chosen orientation of the church prevented the other buildings from being in shadow all day-long…  here, everything seems to have been carefully planned, designed and organised  for the benefit of all.

The above photograph shows an overview of the church with what remains of its bell tower (later addition) and part of the rather damaged west side of the building, half-hidden in the shade of the trees.

This is another view of the North façade with the bell tower and a beautiful arch leading into the nave.

 

Now,  let us enter the Priory Church. The magnificent pointed arch of the doorway leads into the nave  and from here you can see the tracery of the east window…

 

This doorway well deserves attention…

I’ve read that it was strangely similar to that of Dunblane Cathedral

 

 

All that is missing is a magnificent carved wooden door, like that of Dunblane cathedral…

 

The old walls of the church shelter many secrets. In such a place one needs to combine an acute sense of observation and the power of imagination to get a good sense of the place.

Keep quiet and listen carefully… maybe you will perceive echoes from a distant past… mightbe whispers from the invisible world 😉…

The illustrated and very detailed HES guidebook published by Historic Environment Scotland and the numerous information boards on site are very useful to understand the history of the place.

The priory church consists of two distinct parts: the choir which was reserved for canons, and the nave which was reserved for lay people. On the above photo one can see the choir with its magnificent five-light lancet window.

Just try to imagine how beautiful this place must have been when sunlight streamed through the magnificent stained-glass windows, illuminating the choir and the nave…

 

Any abbey,  castle or monument can be read like an open book. It teachs us a wealth of information about history and architecture, especially in Scotland where the historical heritage is particularly well preserved. Each center of interest is studied in detail, meticulously catalogued and explained in situ on illustrated information panels. We like that in Scotland.

There are some architectural features in the Priory Church.  On the above photo you can see what is called a “sedilla”… the door on the right of the sedilla led to the Priory and to the canons’ living quarters.

“The fine row of three seats, or sedilia, was where the celebrant (sitting in the highest seat) and his assistants sat at certain points during the service” (HES)

Here you can see the “piscina” in which “the priest ritually rinsed his hands and washed the sacred vessels during the mass” (more details on the HES brochure) and the “aumbry”*.

*An ambry is a recessed cabinet set into the wall of a Christian church for storing sacred vessels. It’s a sort of tabernacle.

Be careful when you visit the church, for there are stone guardians watching you from above! Look up at the top of the triple-arched window,  two stone faces are scrutinising you from their vantage point ! 😉

Chapter House & Cloister

 

The re-roofed chapter house is the best preserved part of the priory. Situated in the east range of the priory it houses grave slabs, a fine collection of carved stones, medieval effigies including the charming double effigy of Walter Stewart and Countess Mary depicted in a loving embrace.

 

“The most striking monument in the Priory of Inchmahome is that which lay for over six centuries near the centre of the Choir, supposed to occupy the space in front of where the High Altar once stood. This monument has now been removed to the Chapter House, where it lies with other monuments under a secure roof. Without doubt it commemorates Walter, the first Stewart Earl of Menteith and his Countess Mary.”

“The monument represents a knight and lady lying side by side, their heads supported by cushions, and their feet resting on dogs. The lady is clad in a long flowing garment, the folds of which are, like the knight’s surcoat, beautifully sculptured.”

(From Inchmahome and the Lake of Menteith by John A Stewart 1933)

A very detailed description of these effigies continues for two pages, accompanied by a black-and-white photograph showing the monument in better condition than it is today. It is really very interesting.

A whole chapter is devoted by John A Stewart to the third effigy situated next to the statues of Walter & Mary. It is called “The Menteith effigy”. J.A. Stewart writes: “It is probable that the knight represented is a son, possibly the first son, of Sir John de Menteth, and grandson of Sir Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith.”

Walter & Mary in a last embrace…

 

 

Living quarters for the monks

 

 

A reproduction of a beautifully illuminated page with beautiful calligraphy and funny lively images, published in the HES brochure,  gives a good idea of what daily life was like for the canons at the priory.

•  2.30 am : Rise, prayers and psalms
•  3.00 am : Nocturns – The first of the set services
•  5.00 am : Reading
•  6.00 am : Matins at daybreak
•  6.45 am : Prime
•  7.30 am : Reading
•  8.00 am : Change into day shoes (drawing of sandals on the manuscript😉) – Terce, followed by said Mass
•  9.00 am : Chapter meeting
•  9.45 am : Work (image of a scribe writing)
• 12.00 pm : Sext followed by sung Mass (image of musical notes 😉)
•  1.30 pm : None*
•  2.00 pm : Dinner (Prandium)  (image of food here)
•  2.45 pm : Work (image of a gardener)
•  4.15 pm : Vespers
•  5. 30 pm : Change into night shoes, evening drink
•  6.00 pm : Collatio, short reading
•  6.15 pm : Compline
•  6.30 pm : Bed………… repos bien mérité ! 😉

* Terce, Sext, and None correspond to the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, and thus follow Lauds which begins at sunrise, approximately 6:00 am. Terce is Latin for third, Sext means sixth, and None means ninth. In the primitive Church there is evidence that the apostles and early Christians prayed at these times, either in private or in common. (Monastery of Christ in the Desert)

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A few historical notes…

The Augustinian Priory of  Inchmahome

• The priory was founded in 1238 by Walter Comyn, 4th Earl of Menteith, for a small Augustinian community (the Black Canons).
• The Comyn family were one of the most powerful in Scotland at the time, and they had a castle built on Inch Talla, a small neighbouring island on the Lake of Menteith.
• There is some evidence that there had been a church on Inchmahore before the priory was built.
• The priory received many notable guests throughout its history :
  • King Robert the Bruce visited three times: in 1306, 1308 and 1310. His visits were likely politically motivated, as the first prior had sworn allegiance to Edward I, the English king.
  • David II married Margaret Logie here in 1363
  • In 1358, the future King Robert II stayed at the priory.
  • In 1547, the priory served as a refuge for Queen Mary, aged four, hidden there for a few weeks following the disastrous defeat of the Scots army at the Battle of Pinkie during the Rough Wooing.

• Monastic life ended soon after the Reformation in 1560. The chapter house became a mausoleum for the earls of Menteith and stone was taken from the other buildings to be used on Inch Talla.

A Safe haven

Inchmahome : a safe refuge for the infant Mary during the English invasion

English forces defeated a vast Scottish army at the disastrous Battle of Pinkie (near Edinburgh) in September 1547. It was the last great conflict in the War of the Rough Wooing. This was an attempt to force Scotland to comply with its agreement under the Treaty of Greenwich that Mary Queen of Scots would marry Edward VI of England.

Mary was brought from Stirling to Inchmahome for safety, with her mother Mary of Guise. She stayed for just three weeks, but there are many stories about Mary’s accomplishments during the visit. Her name is still attached to the little boxwood bower in the centre of the island.

 

A Paradise for nature lovers…

 

• Inchmahome began a new life as a tourist attraction in the 1800s, thanks largely to the writings of Sir Walter Scott and the arrival of the railway. The influx of English visitors even inspired a name change – the Loch of Inchmahome became the Lake of Menteith.
• The lake and island continue to attract many visitors. Three gnarled sweet chestnut trees thought to date from the 1500s are among the plentiful trees and flowers that surround the romantic ruins.
• The lake also attracts anglers throughout the season.
• Curling competitions are held in winter when the lake is frozen

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Gabriela & Roberto Cunninghame Graham… 

 

Invisible presences haunt Inchmahome…

luminous and benevolent…

illuminating the path to another world…

and among them Don Roberto & Gabriela…

Don Roberto

A very close-knit couple with lots in common

A life of shared adventures,

travels, adventures and political activism

not always smooth sailing…

Don Roberto and Gabriela’s love of horses brought them even closer together… Don Roberto, who spent long periods in South America, was nicknamed ‘the gaucho’. It is amusing to note that Gabriela’s maiden name (although she renounced this name early in her life) was ‘Horsfall’, all the more since it was following a horse riding accident in the Bois de Boulogne, in Paris,  that Don Roberto met Gabriela for the first time. It was the beginning of a life-long love story…

Don Roberto and Gabriela were very prolific writers, which is hardly surprising. Given the richness of their life they had no shortage of ‘material’ to write about,

 

On the above photo you can see the place of the Priory Church which serves as a mausoleum for the Graham family.

 

The Isle of Rest 

 

Los muertos abren los ojos a los que viven”

The dead open the eyes of the living.

Gabriela Cunninghame Graham died on 8 September 1906 in Hendaye, France. Her funeral took place on 19 September 1906 in the chancel of the ruined church of Inchmahome Priory. After her death, Cunningham Graham collected his wife’s poetry in a volume titled Rhymes from a World Unknown.

…Death has a leaden key
Not gold nor chrysolite, but still a key
And this will set both me and my thoughts free.
Yes; I shall live in the wild wind’s sobs
The tree as it blossoms shall count my throbs,
I shall soar through the air on wild birds’ wings,
I shall see the heights and depths of things.

(From “The Key” – Gabriela Cunninghame Graham)

Each year, on the anniversary of her death, he rowed to the island to smoke a cigarette over her grave. Gabriela having been a lifelong and heavy smoker, this had been a promise made to her. He was later buried beside her.

To Love, when I am dead, I shall not be very far,
I will peep in at your window, a faint white star ;
Or when the wind arises—see the cedar tips
They’ll be my ghost-like fingers seeking for your lips.
I’ll wrest the coffin lid and speed me from my lair,
You’ll feel the aura. of my presence steal softly through your hair.
Forgotten, unforgetting—for you I cannot die,
Nor you for me—We’ve drunk too deep Love’s Immortality.

(“The Promise” – Gabriela Cunninghame Graham)

Gabriela’s  very moving burial at Inchmahome Priory is told  by Don Roberto’s biographer and close friend, A F Tschiffely who describes a scene of great pathos:

“Throughout the night before the funeral, Don Roberto, assisted by an old tenant, dug the grave, a task he would let no one else perform. With only a lantern to give a flickering light, the two men worked almost ceaselessly, despite a wild wind and squalls of cold rain and sleet. The funeral was like a scene out of a Sir Walter Scott novel. When the coffin, borne by old servants and tenants from Gartmore… had been placed on a strange dark-coloured boat with a high prow and stern… the strange craft slowly headed for the island. From the shore, only Don Roberto was visible now, crouching at the high stern, his long hair fluttering as he steered the boat, out of the sides of which protruded oars which moved slowly and rhythmically, bringing to mind tales of old Viking chiefs.”

 

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Bibliography

You will find below a short selection of books. Most of them are in my library, digitised on my kindle or downloaded from online book sites.

If I manage to read all these books, I will be able to enrol to write a thesis on Inchmahome Priory. 😂

HES brochures

 

 

• Inchmahome Priory & The Lake of Menteith HES brochure 2007 : a detailed and illustrated brochure published by HES (Historic Environment Scotland)
• Scottish Abbeys and Priories by Richard Fawcett (HES) : another HES brochure, this time on Scottish abbey. It will be useful to prepare my upcoming posts on the subject as well as our next trips and visits to the Scottish holy sites. Its cover features Inchcolm Abbey, the ‘Iona of the east’, which is more than a century older than Inchmahome Priory. Its ruins are situated on an island in the Firth of Forth. We’ll try to visit it on our next trip to Scotland.

Biographies

• Don Roberto The Adventure of Being Cunningham Graham by James Jauncey 2023
• Don Roberto, being the account of the life and works of R.B. Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936) by Aimé-Félix Tschiffely (William Heineman Ltd 1937). Translated into French, about 70 years after the English edition, by Bernardine Cheviron under the title Don Roberto ( Éditions du Rocher 2005)

Books by Don Roberto & Gabriela

• Father Archangel of Scotland and other Essays Adam and Charles Black 1896. This book contains thirteen stories – great stories –  written by Don Roberto & Gabriela.

Here’s an example of Don Roberto’s writing. This is the beginning of the second story entitled “A Will”

“Before me is a thin quarto volume bound in vellum, stained and yellow by the ages during which it has lain unmolested in the archives of Avila. It is tied together with strings of parchment. On loosing them one finds a manuscript written in characters strange, twisted, picturesque, enigmatical to all but those who have made a long study of decipheringold handwritings. It is a will, and unlike modern wills, gives us some clue to the character, throws across the centuries some shadow of the living figure of whose last wishes it is the guardian.’ (…)

Don’t you want to know more ? Many thanks to Janice who offered me an old, first edition of this book. 😉🙂.

• The Complete Scottish Sketches of R.b. Cunninghame Graham: A Careless Enchantment

Short stories are my favourite genre of literature. I have been collecting them for years, particularly Scottish short stories, including those by George Mackay Brown and Iain Crichton Smith. I recently discovered that Don Roberto had written hundreds of them, which interests me greatly, especially as the few I have already read are exactly what I am looking for…

“Graham’s ‘Scottish’ sketches were originally widely dispersed throughout his huge canon of over 250 (supposedly) non-political works,  written over a period of almost forty years (…)”

“As David Daiches wrote, ‘The combination of observation and memory on the one hand with a hauntingly imaginative sense of the past on the other, gives a special flavour to his evocations of Scottish scenes and Scottish manners’, while Walker wrote that Graham’s literature ‘possesses a spiritual quality which transcends the simple narrating of biographical facts’.In 1925, a critic in the Times Literary Supplement wrote: ‘No writer, not even Stevenson, has a greater gift of catching in a phrase the flavour of a landscape.’

• Notes on the District of Menteith for Tourists and Others by Roberto Cunninghame Graham

 

• Rhymes from a World Unknown by Gabriela Cunninghame Graham. A volume of poems published after Gabriela’s death by Don Roberto who had collected his wife’s poetry.
• Santa Teresa Her Life and Times by Gabriela Cunninghame Graham 1907.  A substantial biography of Teresa of Avila, Santa Teresa: Her Life and Times, published in 1894.This was described by Herbert Faulkner West as “monumental and scholarly”.

“On her account the writer of the book spent all the summers of six years, wandering about the sweet thyme-scented wastes of Spain, sleeping in rough posadas, rising at daybreak and jogging on a mule through the hot sun, to find in upland world-forgotten villages a trace of the saint’s footsteps, and happy, after a long day’s ride, if she came on a house where once the saint had slept (…).

(From the Preface of the 1907 edition written by Roberto Cunninghame Graham)

Old books

Recently,  I fell upon The Red Book of Menteith. This big illustrated volume includes a few pages about Inchmahome Priory.The book is listed in the bibliography at the end of the HES brochure and was written by Sir William Fraser (1816-1898), a genealogist, archivist, and Scottish historian.

I’ve downloaded the digital version of The Red Book of Menteith from the Internet Archive and read a few interesting pages about Inchmahome Priory. The book cover features the magnificent east window of the Priory Church and three coat-of-arms …

• Inchmahome and the Lake of Menteith by John A Stewart 1933

I’ve just received this old book from  Hadwebutknown. It was published in 1933 and contains a great number of very interesting illustrations and photos.

“This latest book of photographic views, armorial bearings, seals, tombs, trees, plants, “pikkis and perchis,” the ruined castle of Inchtalla,the “Dogge Islande,” and the stately choir and splendid five-light east window in Saint Colmoc’s Church, forms an epitome of all that has been written of the Isle of Inchmahome.”

(From The Complete Scottish Sketches of R.b. Cunninghame Graham: A Careless Enchantment –    Introduction by RB Cunninghame Graham)

• Notes, Historical and Descriptive on the Priory of Inchmahome (1815) by W. Stirling

Books, books, books ! Still further reading

• Churches and Abbeys of Scotland by Martin Coventry and Joyce Miller

In the very useful appendix Martin’s book devoted to the lives of the saints, I’ve found a paragraph dedicated to St Colman. The book also contains a glossary about architectural terms and a substantial introduction about the story of religion and worship in Scotland.

Colman (605-676): there are many Irish saints with this name. The most famous in Scotland was a monk from Iona who followed Finian as abbot of Lindisfarne. He led the Celtic party at the Synod of Whitby, although he lost the debate and withdrew to Iona. There are dedications to Colman at Inchmahome in Stirlingshire and Tarbat in Easter Ross. Festival day: 8 August.

• Old Churches and Abbeys of Scotland, by Martin Coventry and Joyce Miller a wee guide that you can easily slip into your pocket when travelling 😉

I have most of Martin Coventry’s books in my library, and God knows how much I appreciate them. I’ve just received the magnificent 6th edition of The Castles of Scotland as a birthday present, signed by Martin himself. 🙂 🙂It was a wonderful present. This very big volume is a ‘bible’ for castle enthusiasts, of which I have always been one!

Page 511 of the new edition of The Castles of Scotland there is an entry dedicated to Inchtalla Castle with an engraving of it !

The OSNB [Ordnance Survey Name Books] notes for InchTalla, ‘A small wooded island, on which there are the ruins of a castle… the walls are of tolerable thickness, and standing about one storey in height some place, and in some less.’ And  for Dog Isle a very small island… where the authorities say the dogs were kennelled.’ And for Inchmahome, ‘A considerable island in the Lake of Monteith. Its surface consists of good pasture, and is ornamented by many fine old trees. On the northern portion is situated the ruins of a priory. In many places the walls are nearly entire, and in other places nearly level with the ground.”

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The idea to draw parallels between our daughter’s story and that of Gabriela who is buried on Inchmahome alongside Don Roberto in the shadow of the abbey ruins  was suggested to us by Iain & Margaret.

Dear Nathalie, like Gabriela, you passed away too young and like Gabriela, over the years,  you developed a mystical side and were very interested in the history and doctrine of ancient religions.

Dear lovely daughter I dedicate to you my post “The route of sacred sites in Scotland: Inchmahome Priory”… and the new series I’m introducing today on Scotiana about the sacred places of Scotland.

 

 

My promise to you : we will light your lovely celtic little candles at Inchmahome when we come back there, as we did in Glencoe during our last trip to Scotland, in winter 2021…

 

 

Inchmahome is a very special place, a little corner of paradise, quite enchanting. I hope I have inspired you to visit this island and explore all its riches.

Enjoy reading our pages and have a wonderful trip if your dream of going to Scotland comes true.

See you soon in the wonderful kingdom of lochs, castles and abbeys! 😉

Mairiuna, forever fan of Scotland…