Continuing our exploration of out-of-the-way places, as well as of distinctive churches, we discovered the St. Cuthbert church north west of the castle. Reportedly there has been some sort of religious structure on this site since 850 A.D. In fact, legend has it that St. Cuthbert himself founded a church here by the stream below Castle Rock (later-on this stream became the Nor'loch of the castle). Over the centuries, various church structures were built on this site. The current building dates from 1894 while the steeple was designed by Alexander Stevens in 1789. While most of the stained glass windows in the current building were constructed by local Scottish firms, the one depicting David going to meet Goliath was constructed by the Tiffany Glass Company of New York around 1900 (one of only two or three known Tiffany windows in all of the U.K.). Walking through the surrounding grave yard, we found some notable Scots buried here, including Thomas Bonar, co-founder of the Encyclopedia Britannica; Charles Darwin, uncle to the famed naturalist; Sir Henry Raeburn, artist; and Alexander Nasmyth, artist of the Robert Burns portrait (which we put in the posting of the Writers' Museum) and father of the inventor of the steam hammer. This is an exquisite church and finding these off the beaten track locations is one of the great pleasures of this adventure.
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