The story behind the image:
In 747 AD the death of Tuathalan is recorded, Abbot of Cend-righ-mon-aid, "The headland of the Kings's hill." This record indicates a Christian religious establishment ministering to the Scots and Picts who farmed the fertile soil between the western mountains and the cold North Sea. Another mention of this land is that of the hermitage of St Kenny, an Irish missionary to the Picts, the Painted One's of the Roman travelogues. A Roman Legion had in fact camped here in their vain attempt to subdue the northern tribes at the end of the world..
This has long been a holy place. Around this time Oengus mac Ferguso was High King of the Scots. To save his soul, for he was a murderous man, he founded an abbey at Cend-righ-mon-aid now Kilrymont. To ensure that enough people prayed for his soul after his death, he needed the relics of a saint to ensure a steady supply of pilgrims to the new Abbey. How he acquired them is a matter of legend, or faith.
After Oengus , or Angus as we would now call him, had beat an invading English army he returned to Kilrymont. There he was met by a travellor, one Regulus. He had been ordered by an angel, who appeared to him in Constantinople, to take the bones of St Andrew on a voyage, which would end where and when God so ordained it to end.. A storm wrecked his vessel on the shores below Kilrymont. He erected a cross to keep away evil spirits and it was under this cross that he met Angus on his return from battle.
So St Andrew became the patron saint of the Scots.
In 1124 a Frenchman was elected bishop of St Andrews, by the name Robert. If he thought he was coming to some outpost of the barbarians he was mistaken. On his arrival he found a magnificent sandstone tower called St Regulus's. It had been built as a church to hold the relics of the saint.
The tower in the words of the scholars, is an Italian Romanesque campanile, or bell tower, similar to the San Francesco in Ravenna.
It is 108 feet high.
The foundations were dug out out to a depth of six feet, and the excavation filled with boulders, the upper 2 feet, packed with clay. The well cut ashlar masonary starts with courses of large stones, about 33 by 21 inches, and reduces upwards to stones of about 14 inches. The belfry windows are roundheaded. It was a symbol of a Scotland emerging from the Dark Ages with a building that both symbolised a brave step into the future and a dynamic visual landmark for the faithfull. Remarkably it survived the Reformation.
The relics did not.
They were looted during the Wars of Scottish National Liberation by the English King Edward Longshanks.
They were taken, along with the vast archive of Scottish records in an attempt to destroy Scotland's sense of nationhood..
He failed.
The tower today serves to recall the great age of faith, which transformed the face of Europe. To this era belong the great monumental cathedrals in Paris Chartres and Westminster..
It also recaptures the Scots delight and pride in their patron saint.
"thou art Andreas
his first chosen
destined to die
in the same manner
Your selfless example
will be remembered
by countless generations
as an enduring inspiration
among a distant people."
(Source: St Andrews by Douglas Young) (The Camelot Press 1969)
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