Another night of not much sleep--Ray's sinuses are still bothering him from the planes so that leads to him snoring. Loudly. Argh!
We had breakfast downstairs again--they saved our window table for us for every meal, even though they say they don't do that. The hotel delivered our luggage to the ferry, so all we had to do was walk down and in the process met some very nice people. After the 5-minute ferry ride, we drove towards the north end of Mull as fast as possible as we were trying to avoid the rally cars. Yes, the Mull Rally car races are being held this weekend. And there are hundreds of rally cars on this little island. Imagine--a single track road, very narrow, with small passing places. By the time we drove from South to North Mull for 50 miles, I felt like WE could join the rally! We were like salmon swimming upstream--we were going north, rally car after rally car after rally car was speeding south. And going through Craignure midway was a staging point, so that was fun to negotiate.
We finally reached Tobermory at the north end and it was still crowded but much less so what with the racing cars out doing their thing. We had burgers at MacGochan's Restaurant and Bar, then we headed the back way to Kilmore Church in Dervaig, stopping to ask an official if this route was clear and ok to use. He said going TO the church was fine, but not to come BACK the same way because one of the rallying events would be using this road! So we sped away to see the Kilmore Church for the 3rd time. I love one particular piece of stained glass here. It was created by leading Scottish stained glass artist, Stephen Adam, and shows the figure of Christ portrayed in the traditional way singled out by a halo and beside him walks a lovely woman with no halo. The two walk close together, holding hands. She is inclining her head towards him so that her hair touches his cheek as they emerge through an archway from a temple-like building. She walks slightly in front, as if he is presenting her to waiting onlookers. She definitely looks pregnant. The Biblical text incorporated into the window gives away the identity of the woman: "Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her." The woman is Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene.
We finally reached Tobermory at the north end and it was still crowded but much less so what with the racing cars out doing their thing. We had burgers at MacGochan's Restaurant and Bar, then we headed the back way to Kilmore Church in Dervaig, stopping to ask an official if this route was clear and ok to use. He said going TO the church was fine, but not to come BACK the same way because one of the rallying events would be using this road! So we sped away to see the Kilmore Church for the 3rd time. I love one particular piece of stained glass here. It was created by leading Scottish stained glass artist, Stephen Adam, and shows the figure of Christ portrayed in the traditional way singled out by a halo and beside him walks a lovely woman with no halo. The two walk close together, holding hands. She is inclining her head towards him so that her hair touches his cheek as they emerge through an archway from a temple-like building. She walks slightly in front, as if he is presenting her to waiting onlookers. She definitely looks pregnant. The Biblical text incorporated into the window gives away the identity of the woman: "Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her." The woman is Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene.
The only problem--the church was locked! I understood that it was never locked, so this was quite a disappointment. I took a picture of the stained glass from the outside, but it's just not the same.
I had just read an interesting article by someone from the church, so I learned a lot:
Mary is shown with long golden hair and is dressed in green and gold. This is the "color code" for Mary Magdalene. In the window is also the diagonal cross as a symbol for the Holy Grail. The Diagonal cross incorporates the male principle and the female principle with its shapes created showing a pyramid and a cup. According to Grail historians, this association of the grail with the diagonal cross caused the church fathers in Rome to switch to the asymmetrical vertical cross. Note, too, that St. Andrew's cross on the Scottish Saltire is a Celtic diagonal cross, not a Roman vertical one. There is no vertical cross in this window and the glass segments low on each of the archways resolve into repeated Grail shapes instead of the usual irregular shapes of stained glass. Other controversial features are the sunrise over the male shape of the Kilmore-like tower at the top of window and the leaves creeping around each of the pillars. No one knows if Mr. Adam intended controversy, or if he did it unwittingly or if it was a bit of delicious irony, but a century before Dan Brown wrote "The DaVinci Code," Stephen Adam created in this window the idea that the Mary in question might not be the one everybody thought . AND this village is named Dervaig, which means "little grove" in Gaelic--like pre-Christian sacred groves, AND Kilmore means "Mary's Church."
The wood here in the church in its ceiling and pews is a beautiful shade. Here is also a mix of grey and red stone blocks from which the church is constructed. There is a highly unusual apse at its east end. It is highly decorated and caused so much controversy at first that an Elder resigned in protest at the idolatrous image painted in the apse ceiling. It is thought that it was painted by the architect, Peter Chalmers, who was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Maybe that's why I love it so much. A long-standing precentor called it ungodly and resigned over it too. This church has only had electricity since 1952.
The Kilmore Cross inside the church is 14-15th c., and of the Iona school. It was in two parts and over 5 feet high and was formerly in the graveyard of Kilcolmkill Church but disappeared in 1964. The larger part was found by the road near Skipnes, Kintyre, in 1974, but the smaller part was never found. It is said to have been on the graves of two different men. The remaining part of the cross shows a crucifix roughly carved with figures of St. Mary and St. John on either side and the heads of two dragons, below which develop into intertwined plant-scrolls. At the foot is a pair of shears and the back of the cross is decorated entirely with plant-scrolls.
Mary is shown with long golden hair and is dressed in green and gold. This is the "color code" for Mary Magdalene. In the window is also the diagonal cross as a symbol for the Holy Grail. The Diagonal cross incorporates the male principle and the female principle with its shapes created showing a pyramid and a cup. According to Grail historians, this association of the grail with the diagonal cross caused the church fathers in Rome to switch to the asymmetrical vertical cross. Note, too, that St. Andrew's cross on the Scottish Saltire is a Celtic diagonal cross, not a Roman vertical one. There is no vertical cross in this window and the glass segments low on each of the archways resolve into repeated Grail shapes instead of the usual irregular shapes of stained glass. Other controversial features are the sunrise over the male shape of the Kilmore-like tower at the top of window and the leaves creeping around each of the pillars. No one knows if Mr. Adam intended controversy, or if he did it unwittingly or if it was a bit of delicious irony, but a century before Dan Brown wrote "The DaVinci Code," Stephen Adam created in this window the idea that the Mary in question might not be the one everybody thought . AND this village is named Dervaig, which means "little grove" in Gaelic--like pre-Christian sacred groves, AND Kilmore means "Mary's Church."
The wood here in the church in its ceiling and pews is a beautiful shade. Here is also a mix of grey and red stone blocks from which the church is constructed. There is a highly unusual apse at its east end. It is highly decorated and caused so much controversy at first that an Elder resigned in protest at the idolatrous image painted in the apse ceiling. It is thought that it was painted by the architect, Peter Chalmers, who was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Maybe that's why I love it so much. A long-standing precentor called it ungodly and resigned over it too. This church has only had electricity since 1952.
The Kilmore Cross inside the church is 14-15th c., and of the Iona school. It was in two parts and over 5 feet high and was formerly in the graveyard of Kilcolmkill Church but disappeared in 1964. The larger part was found by the road near Skipnes, Kintyre, in 1974, but the smaller part was never found. It is said to have been on the graves of two different men. The remaining part of the cross shows a crucifix roughly carved with figures of St. Mary and St. John on either side and the heads of two dragons, below which develop into intertwined plant-scrolls. At the foot is a pair of shears and the back of the cross is decorated entirely with plant-scrolls.
After my disappointment, we then drove back to Craignure which had magically recovered from the influx of hundreds of cars, and Ray got us on an earlier ferry which got us into Oban 2 hours earlier than planned. Checked into our wonderful apartments--we've stayed here before--with the fabulous views, right on the water. Headed to Tesco for groceries since we'll be here a week.
Quick supper and dessert and then discovered that wifi doesn't work here, but thankfully Ray got them to restart it, so now we are in. Yay! Hopefully a relaxing week ahead with only ferry trips planned.
Sent from my iPad
super narrow roads to navigate....
Oban waterfront seen from our window:
Sent from my iPad
super narrow roads to navigate....
...made even harder to navigate with rally car races going on!
Kilmore Church I wanted to revisit because of the Stained Glass, but it was closed:
Oban waterfront seen from our window:
