The Picts in the Heartland of Perthshire & Angus

Our tour starts with a visit to the National Museum of Scotland, where we will get a close look at the Picts love of spectacular silver jewellery. This will show how the Picts were skilled metalworkers, often working under royal patronage. Here we’ll also see the Hilton of Cadboll cross slab, standing almost 8ft tall and weighing 2 tonnes, which originally stood in the sacred land of the northern Picts near their Columban monastery at Portmahomack. After lunch we leave Edinburgh and drive north to Dundee stopping to view Dupplin Cross, one of the finest 9^th century crosses in Scotland and the Forteviot Stone, the first newly-designed Pictish stone to be carved in the landscape in 1,000 years in celebration of the region’s heritage.

This morning we see the large collection of Pictish stones in the charming village of St. Vigeans. Now housed in the small local museum, these 38 carved stones were originally dotted in and around the village church, which sits on a natural mound where a Pictish church or monastery may have once stood. Some stones were even incorporated into the walls of the late medieval church – and a few remain in place. Afterwards we view the Camus stone, a rare freestanding cross featuring unique Christological imagery before continuing to Monikie for lunch. This afternoon, we learn about the art of stone carving with a specially arranged visit to David McGovern’s workshop. David is a stone carver with a growing reputation for interpreting and teaching Pictish stone carving styles and techniques.

We continue to the village of Aberlemno to see four stones which show a range of carvings, from pagan incised Pictish symbols to sophisticated Christian iconography. The stone in the churchyard is an upright cross slab made of red sandstone and is over 2 metres tall and is one of few Pictish stones which depict a battle scene which some have interpreted as representing the Battle of Dunnichen in 685AD. Next, we see the Glamis Manse Stone, decorated with carvings of mythical animals, figures with axes and triple disc symbols, a fish and coiling snake. We end the day at Eassie to view one of the earliest Pictish cross-slabs, dating from around 700.

We return south to Edinburgh today, stopping to admire the 7^th century Skeith Stone with its chi-rho at Kilrenny, before our final visit to East Lomond hillfort. Here we meet Joe Fitzpatrick from the Falkland Stewardship Trust to hear about the current excavations. We expect to arrive in Edinburgh around lunchtime ready for our independent onward journeys home.