Fortingall Part I

Took Paul and Paul to Fortingall today. Its claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Pontius Pilate!

Hand on heart. I was fairly amazed to hear that. I just love the name, sounds so Lord of the Rings: Helm's Deep and Fortingall.

En route, we stopped at a very old stone - which has got a name, on a map, which I will need to look up later (I'll replace this lame sentence with it soon). The legend is that you mustn't touch or harm the stone, otherwise you're cursed. But check this out, it's incredible...

Percy Posing

Protective spirit stones, taken from the river and found all over the place.

First stop, the famous Yew Tree.

This is all part of the same tree.
The centre has crumbled away.

The Fortingall Yew is an ancient tree in its own walled enclosure within the village churchyard. Its age is estimated to be between 2000 and 5000 years, and it may be the oldest living tree - perhaps even the oldest living thing - in Europe. Place-name and archaeological evidence hint at an Iron Age cult centre at Fortingall, which may have had this tree as its focus. The site was Christianised during the Dark Ages, perhaps because it was already a sacred place.

(click to enlarge)

As every sensible village child knows, the Yew is the most poisonous tree in the British Isles. Imagine our faces when Paul #2 regaled us with stories of the time he ate the berries! Apparently they're perfectly edible, so long as you take the black seed out, which is highly, highly toxic. He said it tasted like a bitter strawberry.

I do not recommend you try that, or any other part of the tree. Interesting to know, though.

Moving swiftly on...

Also in the church yard we found the following:

Font carved from an old boulder.

Peculiar cross stone.

Cup and ring stone, for offerings?

...?

A gravestone that appears to be a
recycled standing stone.

Gaelic: In Our Memory Forever

Old bell-cote dated 1768

Ornate archway.

(click to enlarge)

This last one fascinates me. It's a fairly modern Celtic cross carving, however one side appears to be Celtic knotwork, and the other side is carved with saints. Rather a nod to both sides of the coin.

There were also spirit stones protecting the main gate, and another by an enclave and in front of someone's house.

I'd never seen these before, but they were everywhere. They remind me of the Psychedelic Stone, in that they're wavy like the waters they were pulled from.