#elgin cathedral

[912195]

This is me giving up trying to get good pictures and instead making it look intentional

[scotianostra]

17th June 1390 saw Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, burn Elgin Cathedral.

Alexander Stewart, Alisdair Mor mac an Righ, was better known as Big Alexander, or the Wolf of Badenoch.

Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan and illegitimate, was the son of King Robert 2nd who later married Stewarts mother. Made his father’s Royal Deputy and Lord of Badenoch, he was one of the most evil men who ever lived in Scotland. He ruled Badenoch through terror and cruelty, burning the homes of anyone who earned his displeasure.

It is told that he and a band of his men would often take their sport by pillaging and raping in the surrounding villages He was also known to hunt poachers as a sport, treating the poachers as prey and disposing of them cruelly by throwing them down a well to drown.

His wife, the Countess of Ross, whose marriage had brought more lands to Stewart, despised him and eventually left him, unable to stand his cruel ways. She appealed to the Bishop of Moray who gave a judgement in her favour.  This outraged the wolf, who came down from his stronghold with his men and burned Forres and Elgin to the ground. In 1390, he burned Elgin Cathedral, destroying family records, legal and monastic writings which were irreplaceable. The King, his weak and aged father, was unable to control his wild son.

Stewart had a lifelong mistress who bore him several children.  After his divorce from his wife, the lands which the countess had brought to the marriage were returned to her. 

Legend says that he often played chess with the devil and at his death, from an unknown cause, in 1394 (or as others put it, 1406,) a terrible thunderstorm had raged all night. In the morning, his men were all found dead, burned and blackened. He himself showed no marks of burning but all the nails in his boots were torn out.

As his coffin was being carried in procession to burial, another dreadful thunderstorm broke out. The storm only abated after the coffin was taken to the back of the procession.

Alexander Grant known as “Bard mor an t’ Slaggan,"or "the great bard of Slaggan,” later wrote a ditty called ‘The Castle o’ Drumin’ from which here’s a couple of stanzas referencing Alexander Stewart, the 'Wolf of Badenoch’… “As ye brood o’er A’an’s clear waters In the munelicht’s silver glow Does the Wild Wolf, Badenoch’s Maister, Pass in pursuit o’ his foe? Son o’ Scotland’s king, a wild ane, In his day his name spak fear Tae mony a ane outside his lairdship, Bishop, commons, prince an’ peer.”

There have been murmurings from some historians that  Alexander was just a product of the times, I’m not so sure, I am also very surprised that the powers that be in Elgin erected a statue to the man, as seen in the first pic, look up the reviews on Tripadvisor, I agree with many of the comments including the one that mentions that this is akin to Corporate  Stockholm syndrome. 

[azvolrien]

I spent last night in a hotel in Inverness and, this morning, headed east along the Moray coast to Elgin, because I felt like visiting the ruins of Elgin Cathedral, which I’ve driven past many a time but never stopped for a look.

As the Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian denomination and doesn’t have bishops, a lot of churches in Scotland that are called cathedrals (St Giles’, Dornoch and Dunblane to name a few) are not technically cathedrals any more. Elgin was once the seat of the Bishop of Moray (that’s pronounced like ‘Murray’, btw, not like the eel), so was, indeed, a cathedral. Of course, now it’s not even really a church any more; unlike a lot of its cousins which continued as parish churches with a new coat of paint, it fell first into disuse and then disrepair following the Reformation, starting with the removal of the lead from the roofs for... reasons? and culminating in the collapse of the central tower that, while the two western towers remained relatively intact, took most of the nave with it.

But hot damn! What a beautiful corpse.

[weavingthetapestry]

Historical Objects: Lion Roof Boss

This mediaeval roof boss, shaped like a rather downcast (or possibly just sleepy) lion, comes from Elgin Cathedral and can be dated to the fifteenth century, according to the sign on site. The boss may have served as a keystone in the a vaulted ceiling. This carved stone is just one of hundreds which have survived from Elgin’s beautiful ruined cathedral, once known as the ‘Lantern of the North’.

[celticculture]

[m00ngazer]

The Lantern of the North

𝙀𝙡𝙜𝙞𝙣 𝘾𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙡, 𝙎𝙘𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙

[bridogradiliste]

Elgin Cathedral in Elgin, Moray, North-East Scotland, UK. Photo by Sally Marr.

[ymohtekleim]