Coming across from #Stow, we passed the sight of the old mediaeval #hospital, the Soutra Aisle with a road sign on the road indicating Soutra Isle 🤣) one of the most important institutions in #medieval Scotland.
All that is left is a stone roofed building. Unfortunately the #bams have been at it and some of the information boards have been vandalised and torn away 😳.
@Wen Thanks for highlighting the current state of the medieval hospital site.This article on medicinal plants at Kinloss Abbey also mentions the findings at Soutra: http://www.livingfield.co.uk/2022/06/
@medievalists Interesting article, & use of DNA analysis! Chess pieces made of horse, cow & deer bones - and "fashioned by groups (of pawns, of rooks, of bishops and knights and of queens and kings), which testifies to planned, routine activity, probably in a specialized workshop."
Musicians and poets of genius were sometimes stolen away by the Aes Sidhe (People of the Hill) for their talents, forced to entertain the #fairy throng at one of their endless balls, and then discarded when the fickle Good Folk had had their fill.
Generally, one discarded by the fairies pined for the beautiful land left behind and died not long after returning to mortal life.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
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RT @oldweirdbritain
“I come from the Land of the Living, where there is neither death, nor sin, nor transgression.
We partake of feasts perpetual.
In a large hill we dwell, and hence we are called Aes Sidhe (People of the Hill)”