Heartlands - Glen Lyon

TELLING THE STORY OF THE HEARTLANDS PANEL

Imogen is a retired doctor. She describes herself:

...as a knitter, not a stitcher, so stitching is alien territory to me but I love making things. I’d read an article about the Great Tapestry of Scotland feeling a little wistful I was keen to sign up despite my lack of stitching experience. I loved creating this piece for the tapestry and quickly came to appreciate the liberation of ‘freestyle’ stitching as an alternative to my evenings by the fire with my knitting. I fell in love with Perthshire when on holiday from Cornwall age 11. Recently we returned to live in Scotland and found ourselves renting a gamekeeper’s cottage in Glen Lyon. We are keen walkers and cyclists and loved our time living in ‘the glen’. I wanted my journeystone to reflect that adventure. The Praying Hands of Mary, also known as Fionn’s Rock, is a mysterious glacial rock formation in the glen, beloved of local photographers. Legend has it that it was split in half by an arrow fired by Fingal (Fionn mac Cumhaill) but more prosaic geologists will point out several similar rocks nearby that are now horizontal.

Glen Lyon was an important route between Iona and Dunkeld. St Adamnán was the 9th Abbot of Iona and his most important work is Vita Columbae (The Life of Columba). Known locally as St Eonan he is said to have visited Glen Lyon in the 7th Century. It is said St Eonan built a watermill (Milton Eonan), a chapel at Clachaig stone circle, and to have prevented the spread of the plague by directing its energy into a rock now known as Craig-diannaidh, the Rock of Safety. Close by is a standing stone called St Adamnan’s Cross. Despite suggestions that St Adamnan died on Iona, folklore says that he is buried in Dull, where the withy willow or dullan that had lashed his coffin broke.