In the Land of the Lennox
At last a day off on a bright crisp dry winter’s day & the opportunity to get out for a walk.
Re-tracing old schoolboy haunts, I crossed the River Leven & set off around Levengrove Park. I thought I knew every inch of this park, as I almost lived here during the last 2 years of my schooldays.
However, I did discover a forgotten corner, that I had not seen before & here lay the ruins of St Serf’s church.
Derelict & neglected but it was with great interest that I read the plaque, that stated that the viscera of Robert the Bruce lay there. His heart was supposed to go to Palestine (as he always wished to go on crusade, events closer to home kept him too busy!),but a wise neighbour informed me that it only got as far as Melrose!
Alistair, the history lecturer, & who lives in Dumbarton, pooh poohs this fact & states that, if all the alleged remains of Roberto were placed together, they would stretch from Silverton to Newtonmore.
I know there are many doubts about the authenticity of various relics of the saints & bits of the Christ cross, especially around the Kingdom of Lennox with the St Patrick legend & Pontius Pilate’s birthplace….etc…….but I wanted to believe I had discovered the final resting place of bits of one of our national heroes.
As I am hoping to attend a wedding at Dumbarton Castle this summer (if I have not upset my future daughter-in-law, by trashing her hair!), it felt good to know, while I was standing in that churchyard, I could also see the castle, where our other national hero was taken on his capture by the darkness, before he was taken to his terrible fate in London.
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