By Bernie Bell

When we went to see the Newark Project exhibition in St. Ninian’s http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=17467

The room which contains a Norse Hogsback grave marker was open, so we took the opportunity to see it and some other bits & pieces of St. Ninian’s history – the Hogsback marker being the earliest

the red sandstone of the Hogsback grave marker with its tiled carved top

There’s a photograph, undated and labelled, ‘Interior Parish Church Deerness From West Door

photo of the inside of the Deerness Parish Church with its traditional pews

It looks very different from the church as it is now but by working out where it was taken from we could see the same basic interior, though much altered, as churches often are.

There’s a framed text of the Easter Lesson for 1937

a photograph of a framed religious verse

which, to me, connects with the silhouette of the soldier, as pictured in this piece….

Just outside this room, in the vestibule of the church, are some drawings of one of the previous churches on this site –  the unusual church with two towers, as mentioned in this piece….

It was impossible to take a photo without including the window of light in the church – which I think is entirely fitting!

photograph of the sketches of the original Deernes church with two towers

This site has been a place of worship for a long time, with layer upon layer of history.


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