South Q.F. >Echline > Abercorn>Hopetoun >Port Edgar.

!!!!! Research Walk based on previous walks but not previously including Abercorn before so flexible nature required.!!!!

Meeting at Tesco SQ for it's parking, bus links, cafe and toilet facilities we will transfer to Echline by bus to visit Abercorn Village and Church then
returning via Hopetoun Estate to Port Edgar.
This is an extract from undiscoveredscotland.co.uk on Abercorn Parish Church. It is a remarkable place. But even though a small part of it can be dated back to the 1100s, what you can see today is only part of the story. There are clues to an even longer history in the collection of stones on view in the excellent Abercorn Museum, just inside the churchyard gates. These include Viking hog-back burial stones; a cross stone; and a carved cross-shaft dating back to the 600s.
The site of Abercorn Parish Church has been sacred ground since St Ninian visited during a mission to the Picts in the late 400s. Before long his followers had established a church here, perhaps the earliest in this part of Scotland. And by the late 600s the Northumbrians established Abercorn as the seat of one of their four Bishops: the others residing at York, Hexham and Lindisfarne.
In the churchyard, make sure you take time to look at the fine collection of old gravestones on view. Many date back to the 1600s, before widespread literacy, so carry pictures rather than words. Common symbols include emblems of mortality such as skulls and bones or hourglasses; or emblems of immortality like angels, cherubs or doves. Also on show are symbols of the trade of the buried person, like an anvil and horseshoe for a blacksmith; or a rolling pin and baps for a baker.