Whithorn & St. Ninian (24/08/16)

During 2016 I have been unable to get back to Frómista to continue walking on the Camino. My annual leave year at work runs from April – March each year and the plan had been to use my remaining leave days after Christmas to return to the Camino in March, however in December 2015, at short notice, my friend Ben Jonas (mentioned earlier in this blog) announced that he was getting married and invited me to attend his wedding in Brasília, an invitation I couldn’t really refuse, especially as I had never been to South America. The decision turned out to be a good one as the trip was fantastic, the wedding wonderful and the food and weather perfect!

In addition to this, the Parish where I am a church member, had been invited by the Archbishop of Central Africa, Albert Chama, to partner with the Diocese of Northern Zambia and in July, I as part of a team of 12 from Cork, Bray and Belfast had travelled out to the city of Kitwe for two and a half weeks to take part in mission trip organised by the Irish charity CMSI. The Camino would have to wait until 2017 (I am already formulating plans!) and yet it is amazing how much I have missed walking on the Camino and how often I think about it. It has very much entered my heart and expanded my horizons in so many ways and I have a longing to get back!

Isle of Whithorn harbour

In the meantime, after I returned from Zambia, my family and I enjoyed a week’s holiday in August in a National Trust Scotland cottage at Threave Gardens in Dumfries and Galloway. Apart from enjoying seeing the wonderful Ospreys, Red Kites (Matthew would have loved it!) Peregrines and other wildlife, I also planned a visit to the Machars of Galloway for a mini pilgrimage to sites associated with St. Ninian; a kind of Scottish Camino Day to keep me enthused about ancient pilgrim trails!

St. Ninian's Chapel

The Machars of Galloway are situated on a peninsula jutting into the Solway Firth, south of the town of Newtown Stewart. Machars is a Scots Gaelic word referring to a coastal area of sandy, fertile soil and the Machars are a distinctive area of small grassy hills that seemed to me very different from the rest of Galloway and reminiscent of the West of Ireland. Nowadays there is a remote, isolated feel to the area, but of course in past centuries, when travel was largely by sea, the peninsula was connected with trade routes that ran between England, Ireland, the Isle of Man and beyond.

Stones left by pilgrims at St. Ninian's chapel

These trade connections are important from a historical point of view; the main town I wanted to visit on the Machars was Whithorn and archaeological investigations, mainly in the late 1980s and early 1990s have shown that by the 300’s AD Whithorn was already an established centre of trade for the local British population and fell within the trading sphere of Roman Carlisle.

Whithorn is famous however for its links with St. Ninian. Traditionally Ninian is said to have been a Roman bishop who founded a famous church there called “Candida Casa” or “Shining White House” and died in AD 431.

The Anglo Saxon Monk, Bede writing in AD 731 says of Ninian that:

“The southern Picts…abandoned the errors of idolatry…and accepted the true faith through the preaching of Bishop Ninian, a most reverend and holy man of British race, who had been instructed in the mysteries of the Christian Faith in Rome. Ninian’s own episcopal see, named after St. Martin and famous for its stately church, is now held by the English and it is here that his body and those of many saints lie at rest. The place belongs to the Province of Bernicia and is commonly known as Candida Casa, the White House, because he built the church of stone, which is unusual among the Britons”.

Some scholars have questioned Bede’s account and whether Ninian actually existed and hasn’t in fact been confused with Finnian of Moville; St. Columba’s mentor who died in AD 589. They argue that Whithorn was already an important place, maybe even a royal settlement and wasn’t founded by Ninian at all as a large amount of high status imported coloured glass drinking vessels have been excavated and these are inconsistent with a monastic settlement, although one would wonder if the glass may not have been for use in the creation of cloisoinné enamels, famously created in early Irish monastic sites from the same period? It is also argued that it was the Anglo Saxon Northumbrians who created and promoted the legend of St. Ninian after they conquered Galloway in the AD 700s. Personally, I haven’t heard any compelling evidence that proves that Ninian was not a real person. Maybe he came to found a church in an already important royal site, rather than founding Whithorn itself, but this is no different to the activities of Irish missionary monks from the same period who focussed their evangelism on important royal sites such as Tara in Meath or Emain Macha in Ulster.

The ancient pilgrims path leading to

St. Ninian's Cave

What is indisputable however, is that the cult of St. Ninian lasted over 1000 years and Whithorn became the most important site of pilgrimage in Scotland. The importance of St. Ninian’s shrine endured and a succession of increasingly elaborate churches replaced the original Candida Casa, as Whithorn came under first British, then Northumbrian Saxon, Viking and finally Scots control. These churches culminated in a vast Premonstratensian cathedral priory, extended and finished in the 1200s with a crypt below the high altar for the shrine housing the relics of St. Ninian.

As one of the most important places of pilgrimage in the British Isles, Whithorn attracted many pilgrims; some very illustrious. Edward II visited the shrine in 1302 while commanding an army occupying Scotland. In 1329, Robert the Bruce, who was dying of leprosy came to pray, as did his son David II, whom tradition says had two arrow heads lodged in his body from the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346, which could not be removed until he visited St. Ninian’s shrine in 1357. In 1427, James I issued safe conduct passes lasting two weeks for pilgrims travelling from England and the Isle of Man and James IV regularly came on pilgrimage with a large entourage in the early 1500s, when an additional chapel was added next to the crypt containing the shrine, so that more pilgrims could worship and the crowds of pilgrims could be managed more effectively. It is also thought that the English king Richard III may have visited the shrine as he had a personal devotion to St. Ninian as evidenced by a handwritten prayer inscribed in his personal prayer book.

After the Reformation, pilgrimage of course went out of fashion and was banned in Calvinist Scotland and the great cathedral and other monastic buildings were torn down, apart from the nave which was used as a Protestant cathedral and then a Presbyterian church until it was superseded by a new Georgian Presbyterian church built in 1822 nearby. Enough remains, however at Whithorn itself and at other sites on the Machars to provide whispers of the area’s important pilgrim past and to remind us of early Christianity in these islands and so we set off to visit them on a mini pilgrimage.

Stone cross from St. Ninian's Cave

We started our trip at the picturesque fishing village at the Isle of Whithorn. This small port is where trading goods bound for ancient Whithorn would have arrived, however, more importantly from our perspective, it is where pilgrims travelling by sea would have disembarked en route to St. Ninian’s shrine. Near the harbour on a raised area below the headland are the remains of St. Ninian’s Chapel.  Built about 1330, it replaced an earlier narrower chapel and stands within a perimeter wall like many early Christian churches. The enclosed area also probably contained a priest’s house and cemetery. Pilgrims arriving at the harbour would have stopped at the chapel to pray and give thanks, before walking the few miles to Whithorn. It was a fine sunny day when I visited, with good visibility and the mountains of Cumbria and the Isle of Man could easily be seen from the site. Nearby, modern pilgrims have left stones and other momentoes in a pile inside the 19^th C lifeboat enclosure in much the same way that pilgrims do at the Cruz de Ferro near Foncebadon on the Camino.

St. Ninian's Cave

We had a very nice lunch (steak and chips for me!) in The Steam Packet Inn and then set off to visit St. Ninian’s Cave. This is the site where reputedly St. Ninian would withdraw on retreat for prayer and contemplation. It has been a site of pilgrimage for centuries and is still the site of an annual Catholic pilgrimage each year at the end of August. Ancient crosses have been found inscribed inside it and several cross slabs and an altar slab were found in excavations in the 1880s and in 1950 in the cave, that have more recently been moved to The Whithorn Stones Museum beside the remains of the Cathedral.

We parked in a small car park and walked the approximately two miles to the cave along the delightful ancient pilgrim path; first alongside some fields and then through mainly Ash woodland which then became a narrow valley with a small burn which finally opened up onto a pebbled beach. The cave was a short walk to the right along the beach and was marked by a wooden cross on the hillside above it.

Today the cave is around 7m deep and 3m high but in the medieval period before several roof collapses, it would have been larger. The walls were inscribed with crosses and graffiti – some from what I could see dating back to the 1700s. Some small wooden crosses had been fixed into cracks in the rock and some Bumble Bees had even made their nest at the back of the cave! Sitting on the pebbles in the cave and looking out at the beach with only the rhythmic of the small waves breaking on the shore, I could see the appeal of the site for contemplative prayer and imagined St. Ninian looking out on the same scene as he withdrew to seek God all those centuries ago.

The Pend with coat of arms of James IV

Walking back to the car, we travelled on to Whithorn itself. This sleepy Scottish town gives little hint of its former importance and looking up the wide main street not a single human or even dog seemed to be stirring! The Whithorn Trust has opened a very interesting visitor centre called the Whithorn Story to display the artefacts found in the archaeological digs and provides much information with a multimedia presentation, information boards, reconstructed models and even a café selling excellent scones!

Close by is The Pend – the original Priory gatehouse which leads into what was once the monastic enclosure with the cathedral placed on a small plateau at the end. The gatehouse still has the royal coat of arms of James IV who made Whithorn into a royal burgh in 1511.

Cathedral Nave with Georgian Presbyterian Church

Passing through the gateway we visited the Whithorn Stones Museum where we saw the cross slabs excavated in St. Ninian’s cave along with a large and impressive selection of other stone crosses and fragments of crosses dating from 400 – 1100s. As physical reminders of Whithorn’s former power and episcopal authority, they were very impressive; especially the Monreith Cross which stands over 2.3m tall and is the largest free standing cross in Galloway. The remnant of an iron ring set into the cross suggests that it may have had an iron chain and collar for punishing offenders and served a similar role to the Rollo or judicial pillar we saw at Boadilla. The Stones Museum, although situated in an old house, has been very cleverly modernised with a glass roof that allows sunlight to flood in and highlight the carvings on the stones.

Interior of Nave

Situated on a small hill above the museum are the remains of the Cathedral surrounded by a graveyard which covers the remains of earlier monastic buildings. Only the roofless nave of the cathedral remains standing, but there are hints of the cathedral’s former importance; a Romanesque doorway, the base of the medieval stone screen that separated the nave from the choir under the gable wall built at the Reformation, and projecting corbels on the north side which once supported the roof of the cloisters.

Romanesque doorway

At the end of the churchyard stands the Georgian Presbyterian church with a lovely stained glass window portraying St. Ninian fitted in the 1950s.

The most evocative part of the site for me however, was across the graveyard from the nave; the site of the east end of the cathedral where the high altar would have been situated. This area was excavated in the Victorian period and the enormous buttresses at the east end were reconstructed, giving an idea of how massive the cathedral once was. The foundations of earlier churches were also revealed beneath the 13^th C cathedral.

Reconstructed east end and remains of earlier churches

Also excavated was the site of the stairs that pilgrims would have descended inside the cathedral to pray at the shrine of St. Ninian in the crypt beneath. A modern metal staircase has been fitted and we descended this, entering the small crypt where the shrine once stood, before passing through the large adjacent chapel built by James IV and back out into the sunshine.

Stairs to crypt

I felt my mini pilgrimage was complete – all being well I will get back to the Camino in 2017, but I felt I had walked in the steps of medieval Scottish pilgrims in the meantime!

Crypt where shrine of St. Ninian stood

Fromista - Burgos - Cork (10/10/15)

The following morning I again had that wistful feeling of longing I get as I watch other pilgrims packing their rucksacks to set off once more towards Santiago, knowing that I have to return home and my latest section of walking the Camino is over. I can’t afford the time or get the annual leave from work that I would need to walk the entire French Way in one go, but I hope to do so one day, God willing, when I retire, if I am fit enough! I often wonder what it would be like to walk the entire path in one go? The problem with walking it in short sections is that just as your body is getting used to it and getting over the initial aches and pains, it is time to go home again!

Sunrise leaving Fromista

So, we shuffled regretfully out of the albergue and into the pre-dawn gloom to make our way back down to the plaza in front of San Martín to wait for Elisa Vallejera, the local taxi driver we had booked online for €100 to take us back to Burgos; a price we thought very reasonable, when divided between the four of us. While we waited we went into a nearby café to enjoy some breakfast and Elisa arrived on time at 7.30am as arranged and we were throwing our rucksacks into her car boot as the sun began to rise over San Martín.

The journey back to Burgos along the motorway took about one hour and Elisa dropped us off outside Burgos Bus Station where we placed our bags in lockers before going back into Burgos city centre for a spot of sightseeing before our bus departed for Bilbao at 12.30pm.

We had seen a lot of Burgos city centre by now, but hadn’t been up to the top of the hill on which the old centre is situated, to see the remains of Burgos Castle. We therefore made our way up the hill passing the cathedral, shining in the early morning sunshine and availing of the outdoor escalator that takes you up part of the hillside.

Castle Entrance

The castle remains were more extensive than I expected and the site afforded fine views over the city centre allowing us to pick out some of the landmarks such as Santa María la Real de Huelgas, in the distance.

An interesting memorial in front of the castle entrance noted the battle for the Castle which had taken place between September and October 1812 when the Duke of Wellington and his forces attacked the French garrison in the fortress during the Napoleonic Wars.

It would have been interesting to see inside the castle ruins but it was too early for them to be open and we contented ourselves with a walk around the impressive exterior walls along a path shaded by pines.

We made our way back down to Plaza Santa Maria to fortify ourselves with a second breakfast in the Valor Chocolate Café with more churros dipped in chocolate caliente!

We boarded the ALSA bus to Bilbao which passed through Vitoria-Gasteiz and delivered us back at Bilbao bus station. We returned to the bar we had visited when we arrived and then made our way to the airport on the Biskai Bus.

The plane was delayed and unfortunately upon returning to Dublin and picking up my car to drive home to Cork, there was a serious accident near Port Laoise on the M7 and we were stationary in a traffic jam for two hours. It was therefore 1.30am instead of 10.00pm when I stepped through my front door and Frómista seemed a very distant memory!

Camino Day 17: Castrojeriz - Fromista (09/10/15)

As I mentioned in the previous entry, Matt and Matthew were keen to see the stars over the Meseta, so we got up early at 5.55am. The scowling French lady in the bunk below, who had been so unfriendly the day before, obviously saw me as some sort of leader of our group (due to my grey hair!?) and came into the bathroom at 6.10am (presumably as a reprimand) to show me the time on her wrist watch before shuffling off scowling again.

The misty pre-dawn summit of

Alto Mostalares

 We quietly made our way through the silent streets of Castrojeriz, past San Juan and down towards the rio Odrilla. It turned out to be very misty, so there were no stars, but it was wonderfully atmospheric as we crossed the marshy area by the river, full of the noise of waking birds and began to ascend the Alto Mostalares. Mind you, the sense of misty seclusion was somewhat interrupted by Matt who kept bursting into loud exuberant worship songs, causing Matthew to comment something along the lines that the silence peppered by the occasional bird noise could be very lovely and evocative if only we were able to enjoy it!

It was still foggy at the summit of the Alto, but the sun rose suddenly over the Meseta as we descended the far side revealing a spectacularly beautiful scene as the track stretched before us and banners of mist lingered. The landscape was bejewelled with spider’s webs encrusted with sparkling dew drops and an all-encompassing silence hung over all; this was the Meseta at its most beguiling.

At Fuente del Piojo we stopped for a small picnic breakfast and Morning Prayer. Matt was eating some chorizo and bread and I was pulling his leg about his pronunciation of chorizo, to which he took offence as he was tired and stomped off after telling me that “the trouble with you Michael is that you never know when to stop” which may indeed be true!

Sloes

We came to the wonderfully evocative 13^th C pilgrim’s hospital of San Nicholas, which after being derelict for several centuries, has fairly recently been restored and opened as an albergue by the Italian Confraternity of St. James of Perugia. Inside there is space for only 12 pilgrims who can stay in fairly basic conditions, but enjoy a communal meal lit only by candles. I would dearly have loved to stay there and hope I can return someday and do just that. We enjoyed an espresso coffee, gave a small donation and had our credencials stamped.

Hospital San Nicolas

 A little beyond the hospital we crossed the rio Piseurga on the majestic eleven arched Puente de Itero, built in the 11^th C by Alfonso VI, whose development of the Camino we have seen examples of since Najera. Upon crossing the river, we were leaving the province of Burgos and entering Palencia. The river was in the past the border between the Kingdoms of Castille and León and indeed the name Itero comes from the Spanish word “hito” which means boundary stone and indeed, a modern boundary stone welcomed us to Palencia.

Puente de Itero

The river is also the point where the area called the Tierra de Campos or Land of Fields starts and continues to the rio Cea at Sahagún. This is a rich and extensive agricultural area that is well irrigated by canals and specialises in wheat, vegetable and wine production. In Medieval times it was also known as the Campi Gothorum or Fields of the Goths and much admired for its rich agriculture but also noted for its unvarying landscape. The Poitou priest Aymeric Picaud who wrote the Liber Peregrinatos in about 1130; the first European Guidebook to the Way of St. James comments about the Tierra de Campos that:

“It is a land full of treasures, of gold and silver, rich in wool and strong horses, and abounding in bread, wine, meat, fish, milk and honey. However, there are few trees…”

Irrigated fields on the Tierra de Campos

We stopped at Itero de la Vega for second breakfast in a rock music themed café as we admired the proprietor’s business acumen who had sent out a woman to meet hungry pilgrims and distribute flyers to them advertising the cafe about 500 m before the village was reached. The bacon and eggs (accompanied by the obligatory medicinal Rioja) was excellent and lived up to the billing on the flyer! By the time we left Itero Matt and I had walked together and had a chat and our recent disagreement was soon forgiven and forgotten.

Itero de la Vega

We walked on, crossing under the Canal Piseurga and stopped for Midday Prayer on the summit of a small hill crowned by pine trees, however we didn’t linger as the pines in addition to providing shade, also sheltered a density of midges worthy of Scotland in August!

Just before Boadilla del Camino we met a shepherd leading his flock of sheep which reminded me of the words of Jesus in John 10:27:

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me"

We stopped for lunch at the En El Camino Albergue, which has extensive gardens and a swimming pool and this allowed us to have a very pleasant outdoor dining experience. Outside the albergue is the wonderful 15^th C village cross or Rollo, which is a stone column that functioned as a symbol of judicial authority and was the place where trials and executions would have taken place. The rollo was richly decorated pilgrim scallop shells and other motifs. I was also keen to visit the 16^th C Parish Church of the Assumption as it apparently contains a beautiful 14^th C gothic baptismal font, but David made me laugh by remarking about my deep interest in such things that “I need this church to be closed” and indeed he got his wish as it was and so we trekked onwards!

Boadilla Rollo

After Boadilla we had a little trouble finding our way onto the tow path of the Canal de Castilla, but once we did, we enjoyed a very pleasant tree-lined walk alongside the canal all the way to Frómista, noting how at regular intervals, irrigation channels ran off the main canal to water the surrounding fields. The modern Canal Piseurga that we passed under before Boadilla was created for irrigation purposes only, however the Canal de Castilla was created in the 18^th C and according to the Lozano guidebook (see bibliography) it was “an important feat of 18^th-century engineering…the fruit of the enlightened policies of the Marqués de la Enselada, and had a triple function: the transport of cereals, irrigation and grinding corn” the latter being because it provided water to power mills. The canal locks which we saw are now all defunct with no gates and it seemed to me that if they are restored, the canal could become one of the great canal journeys of Europe and attract tourism to the region with the accompanying narrowboats and marinas. Apparently, there is indeed such a plan and to see the large locks functioning again would be an impressive sight.

Canal de Castilla

Matthew, David & Matt on the canal locks at Fromista

Arriving at Frómista, we checked into the Estrella del Camino albergue which had a pleasant ambience, nice gardens and an ancient dog belonging to the owners which could barely walk due to its antiquity! We were pleased to meet up again with the Danish lady from Sweden who we had met at the Emaús albergue in Burgos and David enjoyed a long chat with her about the Camino.

Hospital de Palmeros

After a rest and a shower, I was keen to see the famous 11^th century Romanesque church of San Martín. On the way and fairly close to the albergue, we stopped to take a look at the exterior of the medieval Hospital de Palmeros, which is now a restaurant serving authentic (but rather expensive) Castillian cuisine. The name palmeros is rather interesting as it refers to Palmers – pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem who had the palm leaf as their symbol. It may be that it refers to pilgrims passing through the area on their way to Jerusalem, but the term also later came to apply to pilgrims in general.

San Pedro

Close by is the gothic church of San Pedro with its vaulted ceiling which was delightfully out of alignment (subsidence? A dodgy architect?). In the shop I bought a pin for my hat of the rollo at Boadilla.

San Pedro Vaulting

San Martín itself for me, lived up to it’s billing, though of course, Matthew was decidedly under awed by the Romanesque as usual! Consecrated in 1066, it was founded by the widow of Sancho III of Navarre and is considered one of the greatest examples of the climax of Romanesque architecture in Spain.

San Martin

Constructed from a warm yellow stone the church has two drum towers on the west front, three apses at the east end and an octagonal tower rising over the crossing. Two bands of chequered stonework lighten severity of the walls, however the main feature of note on the exterior are the 309 corbels that run around the eaves and are decorated with a profusion of animal, vegetable, geometric, monstrous and human representations.

Exterior of apses showing corbels

The interior of the church reveals a basilica plan with three naves; the largest and highest leading to the central apse where a 14^th century crucifixion hangs behind the altar and two lower side aisles leading to the smaller side apses.

The beginnings of the development of churches with a Latin cross design is also in evidence as there is a transverse aisle running across beneath the octagonal tower. The majority of the aisle pillar capitals are richly carved with biblical scenes such as Adam and Eve and the Adoration of the Magi, but some have ornamental plant and animal motifs and I enjoyed examining them.

Adoration of Magi capital

As I sat in the main aisle I had to admit that there is perhaps something more appealing about the lighter frivolity of gothic architecture with its fluted columns and soaring vaulting compared with the austere plain-ness of the Romanesque stonework as displayed at San Martín, and yet there was something awesome, something stately, triumphant and powerful about the church – it made the weight of its presence felt, which is no doubt what the medieval church and kings of Castille and León wished to convey!

Main Aisle

Of particular interest inside was a model showing how the church looked in the 19^th C, with its semi derelict timber framed extensions (similar to the church we saw in Itero de la Vega) before it was heavily restored back to its original Romanesque state.

Crossing beneath octagonal tower

If there was a downside to the church it was that it now seems rather marooned in a sterile wide plaza, covered with modern flagstones. It gave the impression of the 11^th century having been incongruously dropped into a 21^st century square – the kind of feeling you get when you visit some ugly British cities that were bombed in WWII or subjected to “improvements” in the 1970s and where you come across some medieval church surrounded by a shopping mall and with a concrete office block in the background. This is perhaps no surprise as Frómista was apparently a centre of the rail industry in the 19^th C and industrialisation never improves a town in my experience. I am sure a few trees and flower beds could have made the surrounding area look less sterile, but perhaps trees would damage any surviving archaeology of the monastic complex that must have once surrounded the church?

Sitting outside in the sun contemplating this, various bells began to ring around Frómista calling the faithful to Mass and an American pilgrim standing nearby enquired if there was an emergency? I squinted at him in the sun and at first thought he must be joking, but then realised that no, he really did think the bells were ringing for the emergency services. I suppose living in Ireland where the Angelus bell rings on the national radio station at 12.00pm and 6.00pm before the News, I have come to imagine everyone knows about these things, even if like me, you are not a Catholic!
I was all for trying the authentic Castillian cuisine at the Hospital de Palmeros, but the others, probably rightly, felt it was too expensive and so we went to a rather generic café nearby for pizza. Afterwards we headed back to the albergue where Matthew and I said Evening Prayer together before bed.

We had come to the end of my third section on the Camino and it was time to travel home the next day. Anyone for Castillian cuisine to celebrate when we next return….?