Begun in 1224 and ruined by 1560, we found Elgin Cathedral frozen into the grass, inscribed against the sky.

Its bulk fades into fragility, its space shaped loosely by huge gaping walls, remains of windows that spin your view about the grayness of sky. Stubs of pillars that pull it down again to the grass and fill its center with memory.

Enough remains to remind you of just how beautifully human being worked this stone.

The chapter house, still miraculously standing

A Pictish cross, with barely visible views of falconry

I have not seen so many Memento Mori since St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, certainly never so many in the UK. Here they are carved into stone, reminders of death sat alongside symbols of labour in life. How much better is this than the polished marbles of conquest and pillage.

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And there are some most beautiful stone heads, human and animal alike.

Views of the ruins from above

And views over Elgin from the tower: