Tayside Flowers Growing Round the Trees at Dunkeld Cathedral

Thick beams of spring sun saturate the lawn around crumbling Dunkeld Cathedral. Moss inches up the trunks of towering oaks, and a herd of precious yellow-capped flowers climb up the moss. I lay belly down upon the earth and bring in the scene through my camera while dark age warriors and monks mirror me beneath the ground. The aroma of the fecund turf and the whispering of the River Tay as it sidles past hold me immobile. The warmth of the sun is a hug from the unblemished March sky. Down river, a man in hip waders outlines the flicking of his wrist with a filament of fly-fishing line. The fly careens onto the river’s surface where the movements of fish leave geometric whorls. There is space between the sounds and smells and sensations that elevates them all from footnotes to constellations.

Alone amid the ruins of a 13th-century cathedral and prostrate on the earth watching new life grow on the bones of old life, an understanding of the desire to wrap our remains in the earth flowered.

Article Comments

  1. Ken January 27, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    Sweet. A little dark in the end for a lad of your years but it’s nice work. I’ve had similar feelings and it’s always in some beautiful natural or historical setting where I feel myself more a part of the earth and our history than I do in our houses and cities. I remember it well from Arbroath Abbey. Do you know what species of flower they are?

    1. Keith Savage January 27, 2012 at 2:09 pm

      Unfortunately, I don’t.

  2. JoAnna January 27, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    Beautiful! This looks like a place I could take a nap.

    1. Keith Savage January 27, 2012 at 2:51 pm

      Just needed a dram and I’d have been all set!

  3. mary wise February 10, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    Beautiful!!!

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