Tullich Church And Pictish Stones

Tullich Church is in fact the ruinous remains of St Nathalan's Kirk in Ballater. The Kirk is set in a peaceful spot overlooking the foothills of Mount Keen. Next to the churchyard is a large display of several Pictish Stones.

We accidently came across Tullich Church when passing in the car. As I am drawn to ruinous places of religion, we had to pull into the car park and visit this little beauty.

Tullich is the birthplace of St. Nathalan who was a nobleman that owned a large estate where he grew a variety of crops which he distributed to the poor.

In the 7th century, St Nathalan founded the Kirk in Tullich. He then went on to build a small chapel on the Aberdeenshire clifftops at Cowie and churches at Bothelim and Colle.

Legend tells of a very rainy summer, where Nathalan cursed the heavy rain which was hindering his harvest. In penitence for his cursing, he padlocked his own right arm to his right leg, tossed the key into the River Dee and set off to walk to Rome seeking forgiveness. When he reached Rome he sat down to a fish supper, but when he cut open the fish, there was the key that he had thrown into the Dee. There is a pool in the River Dee nearby that is still called 'the key pool'.

In his later life, Nathalan was appointed as the bishop of Tullich. He died in 678AD.

As a legacy, Ballater's Masonic Lodge is named 'The Lodge of St Nathalan of Tullich-in-Mar'. He is also one of the saints depicted in the Millennium Murals at St. Mary's Cathedral in Aberdeen and the Roman Catholic Church in Ballater is named after him. In Stonehaven, one of the stained glass windows in the Church of St James the Great features him.

The kirk houses memorial stones, some of which are the Pictish Stones in their original location. Just outside the churchyard is a large protective shelter containing many more of the Pictish Stones.

There are twenty seven stones and a stone font that were found within the area around Tullich Church. Most of them and be found in the large protective shelter.

Many of the stones are incised within crosses in various forms. There is also a Class I stone (unworked stone with symbols incised, but no crosses, dating back to the 6th, 7th and 8th century) and ornate fragments of possible Class III type (stones that feature no idiomatic Pictish symbols, that could be be cross-slabs, gravemarkers, free-standing crosses or composite stone shrines, originating from the 8th or 9th century).

You can also see two of the stones on display at Ballater Station, unfortunately we were heading in the opposite direction, so were unable to visit them on this occasion.

The Picts were groups of people that lived north of the Firth of Forth in Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. There is a fascination to learn more of their way of life and culture from uncovered texts and and Pictish stones.

Around 20% of recorded Pictish stones have been found in Aberdeenshire. The purpose of stones and the meaning of the symbols is not clearly understood, however it is an honour and privilege to be able to get a close look at these important symbols of history.

There is a handy large car park right next to the church grounds.