Whithorn
September 16, 2009 8:20 PM
Thank you presiding officer.
The historic and religious significance of Whithorn is immense and I congratulate Alasdair Morgan in bringing this debate to the chamber.
The South of Scotland is laced with historically important and significant sites which are all too often overlooked for other well marketed attractions, and this debate highlights the importance of the South of Scotland and Whithorn in particular.
I would firstly take up the issue of Mr Morgan referring to the area as depressed as the Isle of Whithorn and much of the Solway Coast is an absolute haven and there is much of interest along that Costa Del Solway, Wickerman Festival, the Book Town of Wigtown, Artist Town of Kirkcudbright, Logan Botanical Gardens, Threave and the many Rural Shows, that I enjoy attending in the Summer months. And I'm Sure Alisdair Morgan would agree there is much to be seen in the South and little sign of depression.
But I hope that this debate can highlight the excellent work of the Whithorn Trust to keep alive the ancient memory of those settlers believed to be Scotland's first Christian community back in the 5th century and the work of St Ninian; the apostle of the southern picts.
As is reflected in the motion, such a site is important in terms of theological history and study. The most significant of the early Scottish saints was undoubtedly Ninian. He began his pilgrimage as a bishop, having been born in about the year 350AD, in the years that the Roman Empire were seeing its terminal decline. He was sent to Rome for religious instruction after his parents adopted the faith from Roman soldiers and returned to Whithorn where he built his Candida Casa or the original White House in 397AD. But the story of Bishop Ninian does not appear in the historical record until 300 years later, in the writings of the Northumbrian monk Bede, in 731AD. Therefore why perhaps that St Ninian is perhaps not so well known as St Columba. But it seems from archaeological evidence that this area would have been for a long time important for ancient trade, perhaps as long back as when the ice melted on its northern track.
But there remains little written knowledge of Ninian's time, but as most scholars know little was written of history post Roman and pre Bede, in the therefore called dark ages, so little was written of anything in those times, and therefore is irrelevant re the story of Ninian. A story which is now being backed up by archaeological evidence. Evidence of the importance of Whithorn from Ninian's time up and to the reformation.
Some may also wonder at why a remote part of the South West of Scotland would have seen so much early activity, but that is a modern land vehicle attitude and one that doesn't recognise the fact that the Sea was the ancient motorway and areas like Whithorn and Orkney in the North were at vital junctions in that ancient network.
The Pilgrimage to Whithorn and the importance of the are went into decline, with the economy and population following, during the times of reformation, and names synonymous with that area moved to the New World of America, Canada and Australia, therefore in this year of the Homecoming I hope this motion and debate goes some ways to encourage those with historical links and an interest in the history of Whithorn, the surrounding area and Scotland as a whole, to pay a pilgrimage back to the Isle of Whithorn.
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