The Spirit Unfettered at Brechin Cathedral

On a whim, after a long, long day out exploring the Angus Glens, I diverted into Brechin as the sun descended on a beautiful May day. Brechin (pronounced BREE-eh-kin with a guttural, phlegmy break in the middle that’s very hard to articulate) is a pretty town in eastern Angus, just off the main A90 leading toward Aberdeen, and it is renowned for being the home of Brechin Cathedral.

There aren’t many cathedrals left in Scotland thanks to the Reformation, but those that are left, places like St. Mungo’s in Glasgow and Brechin Cathedral, are incredibly powerful places. I often wonder if it’s the church and the belief system that makes such a place powerful, or if, like a well built over a spring, the place of worship just serves as a conduit to some greater power within the earth. Perhaps it is both, and more.

Brechin Cathedral was left to me on this beautiful day. I wandered the graveyard in the light of the setting sun, noting the same reddish stone used in many of Angus’s other historic sites, places like Arbroath Abbey, Edzell Castle, and the aptly named Redcastle.

Brechin Cathedral is a glorious house of worship, but one of its most distinctive features is the tall, Irish-style round tower adjoining the main square tower. This 106-foot tall tower was built as a freestanding tower in the 11th century, and it remains one of only two such towers on mainland Scotland (the other is at Abernethy). Such round towers were bell towers once upon a time when someone would climb to the top and ring handbells from the window. The beautiful door is cut from a single stone and decorated with a very Irish depiction of Christ crucified.

It’s believed a Medieval cathedral and Celtic monastery preceded the building of Brechin Cathedral during the reign of Kenneth II, MacMalcolm, King of Scots in the late 10th century. In the mid-12th century King David I converted the church into a Norman-style cathedral, and the form we see today hails from 1900. My favorite architectural detail of Brechin Cathedral is the massive “rose window” on the Queen’s Aisle, the north transept named after Queen Victoria who died during its building. Note the small heads to either side of the window.

The interior of Brechin Cathedral serves as a moody place of worship but also a local museum, which is common for churches in small-town Scotland. Here you’ll find some well-preserved Pictish stones as well as two stones of special note: The Mary Stone and the Brechin Hogback. The hogback in particular is a stunning slab of red sandstone in the Ringerike style, which mixes Celtic and Scandinavian motifs, and dates from the 11th century.

Standing quiet and resolute in the heart of Angus, Brechin Cathedral is a beautiful place of contemplation and artistry. Nothing lasts forever, but some things last a long time. I, for one, am glad Brechin Cathedral is one of them.