If
you venture down the road from Jock’s Lodge in Edinburgh and successfully
navigate one of the narrowest pavements known to man, you’ll arrive in
Restalrig. There, nestled by Marionville
Fire Station on one side and a housing estate on the other, sits the churchyard
of St Margaret’s Church. If you are
lucky enough to find the gates open and wander on in, you will enter a little
haven of peace with lots of ornate and crumbling gravestones, ivy covered tombs
and ancient looking trees. The road
through this graveyard then leads to the church, where beside it stands St
Triduana’s Chapel.
St
Triduana’s Chapel was built in the 1400s in the time of James III to enclose
the well of St Triduana. The building
was of a unique design in that it was a two storey hexagon, the lower storey
being the well house and the upper storey being a chapel. At the time the chapel was built it was
considered to be a remarkable building and Pope Innocent VIII described it as
being a ‘sumptuous new work.’ Only the
lower storey now survives as the chapel was destroyed in 1560 during the
Reformation. In 1906 the chapel was repaired,
and a new roof added to it.
Few
nowadays have heard of St Triduana, let alone the chapel dedicated to her. She was believed to have accompanied St
Regulus to Scotland in the 4th Century when he brought over the relics
of St Andrew. They landed at Kilrymont,
which is now known as St Andrews.
Triduana then made her way to Rescobie in Angus where she lived a life
of reclusive prayer and worship for a while.
However, one day she came into contact with Nectan, King of the
Picts. On seeing her he was overcome by
a violent passion for her and demanded that she be his. In great fear of him she fled but was soon
found by a party the King had sent out to search for her. They told her she must return to the King
with them.
‘What
does so great a prince desire of me, a poor virgin dedicated only to Christ and
God?’ She asked of them.
‘He
desireth the most excellent beauty of thine eyes, which if he obtain not he
will surely die,’ replied the leader of the group.
‘Then
what he seeketh he will surely have,’ answered Triduana. And (yes, you’ve guessed it) she plucked out
her eyes, skewered them on a branch snapped from a thorny tree and handed that
to the King’s men saying – ‘Take that which your Prince desireth.’ They were horrified by this and rode back to the
King to present him with Triduana’s gory gift.
The King, needless to say, then gave up on his lusty pursuit of
Triduana.
After
blinding herself Triduana made her way to Restalrig where she lived a life
dedicated to fasting and prayer. There
she was said to have cured those who were blind or had severe eye
problems. On her death she was buried
where the church of St Margaret now stands.
The spring near to where she lived became a place of pilgrimage soon
afterwards, as it was believed the waters that came from it were holy and could
cure blindness and diseases of the eyes.
St
Triduana’s Chapel is currently closed to the public as it is undergoing
conservation works.
I
placed the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk today in a crack in the
wall of a tomb near to the chapel.
The
coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are:
Latitude
55.957896
Longitude
-3.149796
I used the following sources for information of St Triduana’s Chapel –
Public information notice at
the site of St Triduana’s Chapel
Scotsman, December 7, 1931 –
article on St Triduana and the well at Restalrig by Dr T. Ratcliffe Barnett
Historic Environment Scotland
Website
Historic
Environment Scotland - St Triduana’s Chapel
Canmore Website
Canmore
- St Triduana's Chapel, Edinburgh
Article and
photographs are copyright of © Kevin Nosferatu, unless otherwise specified.