#st ninian

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| ♛ |  St Ninian’s Isle tombolo - Shetland, UK  |  © countrylivinguk

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Red Kites and coastal paths a great week in Galloway: Part 2

Red Kites and coastal paths a great week in Galloway: Part 2

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In the Footsteps of the Saints

The Machars of Galloway have a long association with  St Ninian (whose shrine in Whithorn was once the prime pilgrimage site in Scotland) and other early Christian saints. Throughout the Summer we are offering a programme of short pilgrimage-style events at various sites around the area. These will involve a walk  of around half an hour in the beautiful Galloway countryside, pausing along the way to connect with our surroundings and the spiritual dimension beyond, and will each conclude with a short act of prayer and reflection at a particular holy site. Where possible these will link in with the weekly Ninian Moments acts of prayer inWhithorn and Wigtown.

Some events will be dependent on the tide to allow access to parts of the route  so it is not possible to give exact times in advance - see website. 

All events are open to locals and visitors alike and are free of charge (donations welcome).  Please dress for the weather. Stout shoes are advisable. You participate at your own risk.

First Tuesday of the Month

St Ninian and the church in Whithorn

Meet at Rispain Camp (between Whithorn and Glasserton) at 10.45am

Third Tuesday of the Month

Various locations, including Physgill Glen & Ninian’s Cave,  St Medan’s Church & Well, Isle of Whithorn & St Ninian’s Chapel

(Please see our website for details)

Mondays 8 July,  26 August, 30 September

The Wigtown Martyrs

Meet at Wigtown Market Cross at 10.45am

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26th August

St Ninian’s Day

Source: PlymouthLive website

Today is St Ninian’s Day. Ninian was a fourth century Christian missionary who was allegedly the first holy man to bring the faith to Pictish Scotland. Apparently the turf hut-dwelling Picts were impressed by the stone that the saint had brought into the north from Roman Britain to build the first Scottish church at Whithorn, near Burrow Head in Dumfries and Galloway. The Picts called it the White House and a priory remains on the church’s site to this day.

Further south, today was when, in 1921, the Hairy Hands of Dartmoor struck yet again. The Hairy Hands haunt a section of the B3212 in Dartmoor and allegedly interfere with drivers travelling on this stretch of road. An army officer claimed he was riding a motor cycle between Post Bridge and Two Bridges, when two strong hairy hands closed over his eyes, causing him to crash. He survived but was the third person that year to have had a mysterious accident on this road. In March a doctor travelling in a side car with his children was killed after ordering the kids to jump free because “something was wrong” as he wrestled with the handlebars and in June a woman was killed when a coach went out of control on the same stretch of road. Whether the B3212 haunting is a land version of the Bermuda Triangle, a more modern manifestation of the boggle phenomenon, or simply a coincidence of bad driving and mechanical malfunction, has been fiercely contested.

Large hairy hands were seen scratching at the outside of a caravan in the area by a terrified woman inside three years later, but the supernatural entity has kept its hands to itself since.

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Today (September 16th) marks the celebration of the Feast of St. Ninian.  

Our St. Ninian Cross is based on a 10th century design carved in stone as a decorative motif in a larger panel.  It also appears in a Celtic manuscript illumination.

Born around the year 360, St. Ninian has been heralded as one of the great missionaries and early Saints of the British Isles. Traveling throughout the Isles, he established several monasteries, ministered to his Christian Briton countrymen, and converted many more Britons to the Faith.