Tour
Sacred Scotland
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This 7/8day tour of sacred Christian sites is led and guided by Jackie Queally who has led tours of early Christian and prehistoric sites since 1999. She is the original tour guide to Rosslyn Chapel and has written four booklets and two guides on this and other historic and sacred aspects of Scottish sites. She has also produced audio files on the ley lines of Scotland, having studied them for many years with experts in that field. Her collaborator and dear friend Ivor is an experienced tour guide in Scotland who organizies the logistical and travel matters for the tours. This combination ensures an exhilarating and not to be forgotten experience. It is the spiritual and magical quality of the
sites that will leave you with lasting impressions. The historic and "energetic" elements of the sites are explained to you personally. There a number of significant ley lines you can dowse with pendulums of rods made available to you if you wish to connect at that level. This tour covers many sites that are complimentary to Rosslyn and Jackie can explain why this is so. The sites often stimulate and refresh people in a very deep manner.
Your Itinerary:
Day 1: Evening meal in hotel followed by orientation led by Jackie.
Day 2: Journey up through Perthshire to Fortingall. En route we visit Dunkeld that was an important early ecclesiastical centre in the time of the Picts, when the southern Picts moved their headquarters from Abernethy to Dunkeld a little to the north. The Culdees were associated with Dunkeld. Nearby the Pictish standing stones at Meigle are well worth a visit and some display Christian symbols as well as the pagan animal symbols, for in the ninth century the Pictish tribes were becoming Christian.
The Tay valley inland is very beautiful and we visit an interesting site at Grandtully that has long been in use for worship. The villages of Weem and Dull are associated with St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and St Adomnan of Iona respectively, and there are ancient crosses to view, old hermitage sites and older worship stones in close proximity. The climb to St Cuthbert’s Cave in the woods above Weem is typical of spots where the early monks preferred to dwell, close to nature, in the spirit of their ancestors. Dull is highly significant in terms of its Iona connections, for this was where the Iona Church had its sister mainland monastic site, but as ever in this region there is evidence of older worship, and even Templar sites. Overnight at Hotel near Fortingall.
Day 3: Glen Lyon. Fortingall is an early Christian settlement led by St Chad, but it was used for many thousands of years as a place for Druidic worship – the yew beside the church is the most ancient tree in Europe and dates between 5 and 7 thousand years old! The yew tree was at the centre of a pre-Christian religious culture in the valley. There are many early Christian and prehistoric worship sites in the vicinity. The glen is the longest inhabited glen in Scotland but habitation is sparse – the natural world remains supreme here with much local folklore, fairy stories and ancient myths. A synopsis of all the sites in Glen Lyon will be provided – they include old bronze bells the monks carried with them, Iron Age forts (known as Irish homesteads!), Celtic crosses, and standing stones. There even is a settlement where Pontius Pilate is supposed to have lived as a child! Schiehallion is the main faerie mountain of Scotland and coupled with the glen offers the most magical atmosphere imaginable. Hotel: near Fortingall.
Day 4: Travel to Iona Abbey for evening service. Tracing the same route the Ionan monks made in the early centuries, we take the ferry to Mull from Oban and visit the Maclean seat at Duart Castle before crossing to the north of the island to catch the small ferry to Iona, where we stay at the St Colomba Hotel. The hotel is adjacent to the abbey and its menu daily features organic produce that the hotel staff grows on the same walled plot the Columban monks used to grow their food in! Evening service in the abbey follows dinner at the hotel. Hotel: St Columba’s Hotel, Iona
Day 5: Day free to explore the island with its many ancient sites. There is an optional small boat journey to the Isle of Staffa for those who wish to visit this basalt wonder with Fingal’s Cave accessible only if weather conditions are favorable. Hotel: St Columba.
Day 6: Return on afternoon ferry and travel to the uniquely styled Kilmartin Museum in Kilmartin Valley that is an archaeological wonder. Visit Kilmichael Glassary and Kichrennan on Loch Awe. Hotel: Lochmelfort Hotel on Loch Awe
Day 7: Return to Edinburgh via a boat trip to Inchcolm Island that St Columba may well have visited, that has a ruined mediaeval abbey on it. Hotel: Edinburgh
Day 8: Additional day trip to Lindisfarne is optional. Hotel: Edinburgh. While this tour is open to all it lends itself particularly to women who are traveling alone and who wish to join similar minded people to explore the sacredness of the land.
Tours arranged on demand.Ladies Only Tours by demand
Price:
Minimum Per Person Price: 1100 Pound Sterling (GBP)
Maximum Per Person Price: 1500 Pound Sterling (GBP)
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price. A Set Tour will run from Sat 22nd -30th September.Includes full notes and Tour Pack.Half Board at Hotels sharing twin/double room. Single supplement applies.For low number of participants will be charged a supplement .
