Brechin Monastery

Walter Coutts of St Salvator's College, St Andrews, conjectured that the Monastery of Brechin was founded in the tenth century near the city of Brechin, which was already flourishing at the time and may have been the Pictish center of government in the ninth century. The Picts converted to Christianity in 560 through the teaching of Saint Columba, and the Culdees probably made Brechin a seat of learning soon after. The establishment occurred during the reign of Kenneth II, king of the Scots from 971 to 995. The Chronicle of the Picts recorded the dedication of the monastery to the Lord as, “Hic est qui tribuit magnam civitatem Brechne Domino” (Here is he who bestowed the great city of…

The Aldbar (or Auldbar) Stone, which dates from the ninth or tenth century, came from the chapel at Aldbar Castle, a sixteenth-century tower house two miles southwest of Brechin. The stone is carved from red sandstone and displays relief carvings on both sides. On the front, an endless cross with the Celtic knotwork design, representing eternity, stands atop a base of two concentric squares. The cross is flanked by two monkish figures, each of whom holds a book. The reverse displays beasts and humans, including a man on horseback suggesting a hunting theme, but it also portrays the biblical King David wrestling a lion, notable in that Celtic slabs typically presented images of worldly life…