On Friday, I drove up to Penicuik where I called upon Mr Past President Reid and Mrs Reid. I am delighted to report that Mrs Reid is rude health and is mightly relieved at not having to polish the chain. I am sure that you will all recall fondly Mrs Reid's mentions on the blog last year. We were joined by Elaine ahead of going into Edinburgh to present Honorary Membership of CILIPS to Dr Ian MacDougall. This was a most pleasurable task. We called upon Ian and his wife and had a lovely time with them and Ian is very much on the mend. Ian is a true scholar and he was awarded honorary membership for his outstanding contribution to social history, oral history and for recording the lives of working people across Scotland. His work with the Scottish Labour History Society is truly inspiring. So, he is a wonderfully worthy recipient of our honorary membership.
Interestingly, my weekend also involved the history of working people too. You may well have seen that the Duke of Rothesay recently unveiled a memorial to the Land Girls and yesterday I took my mother to see it. We were thrilled by it. It is a stunning piece of steel sculpture and just makes you smile. It is fabulous and beautiful and we in Banffshire are delighted that it is on our home turf. It has been described in the press as being "at Fochabers". Well it isn't. It is at Clochan, or rather between Clochan at Preshome, in the heart of the area known as the Enzie.
The Enzie (pronounced 'Ingy') is an ancient territory, a Lordship of the Gordon family and the Marquess of Huntly, Chief of the Gordons, is also the Earl of Enzie. The Enzie is a beautiful stretch of countryside and is one which inspires deep spiritual affection in all who know it. Part of this is because it is the heart of old Roman Catholic Scotland and has the two oldest Post-Reformation Catholic churches in the country: St Ninian's at Tynet and St Gregory's at Preshome (pronounced "Prizome'). In the eighteenth century, there were more Catholics in the Enzie than in the whole of Glasgow and, for virtually two hundred years, all of the leaders of the Catholic Church in Scotland came from the district.
Both of these churches are astonishingly remarkable buildings. St Ninian's is, in fact, built as series of simple cottages and was constructed as a clandestine church during the years of penal persecution. Inside, it is extraordinarily beautiful, being very plain and simple but with a lovely altar and lovely pedimented door frames. It is still used. St Gregory's is no less astonishing as it is first purpose-built post-Reformation Catholic church in Scotland and its baroque architecture would not be out of place in an Italian piazza. Instead it is in the middle of field tucked away up a single-track road in deepest Banffshire.
Equally impressive is St Peter's in Buckie, which was supposed to be a cathedral, hence it has two spires, but the seat of the Bishop was moved to Aberdeen. Interestingly, most people in the west end of Banffshire, the Parishes of Enzie and Rathven, have a wonderful mix of ancestry that is Catholic, Episcopalian and Presbyterian and, with only a couple of exceptions, the various denominations have always rubbed along wonderfully well, unlike some other parts of the country. There are still, in the Enzie, lots of recusant families, the Geddes family at Tynet, the Murdochs at Windsoer, the McDonnells at Tulloch, the MacLeans at Cuttlebrae, the Greens at Slackend and many others who have all held true to the 'old faith'.
Remind me to get onto the subject of Peter Anson one of these days. He wrote the history of St Ninian's at Tynet and called it the "Banffshire Bethlehem". But Anson is another story......
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