We visited a lovely place in Perthshire called Fortingall. Its a tiny village, and has a beautiful church (called a Kirk). In the grounds of the kirk is the famous Fortingall Yew - a tree considered to be around 5000 years old !
The Kirk (church) was built in 1902, but the site has had religious buildings dating back to around the 8th century. Its a lovely white washed highlands church - and I'd say it is off a fairly common design from around that age in Scotland.
Thats the famous yew tree (above) on the left next to the kirk - its had the wall built around it to protect it, as its such an important tree.
Its crazy to think that the tree is 5000 years old, dating from around 3000 BC - so that makes it around 500 years older than the pyramids of Giza ! There is also evidence of an earlier iron age site existing at the location. I love the info board about the tree - showing the various things in history that the tree has lived through - its quite crazy.
The Kirk has a small graveyard inside its grounds. I love the orange stone with the red flowers - it has very Scottish names on it - Dugald McDougall and Flora McDougall - thats about as Scottish as you can get ! The stone marks a family plot with 5 people buried there from 1932 onwards to around 2007 (the last date is obscured by the flowers).
I love the wee bell tower at the top of the church, which is actually modelled on the one from the previous church that was on this site.
That previous bell tower is preserved on the site with a date of 1768 carved into it !
My pictures of the inside didnt come out that well. Its fairly simple with a lovely wooded curved ribbed roof, and then one main hall - very pretty. It is a Church of Scotland church.
There is also some fragments from an early religious stone carving - fantastic craftsmanship from a time long ago !
It really is a stunning wee church. Its a little of the beaten path, and I'm glad we stopped into see it (our first time).
On the way there we hit a highlands traffic jam ! This is fairly common in the remoter parts of Scotland and is something I've witnessed many times. A flock of sheep being moved by road !
Well we certainly enjoyed our trip to see this lovely church and the tree. I found the tree particularly fascinating - 5000 years is pretty crazy, and it is considered one of the oldest living things on the planet - wow !
