This interesting little church, known as Dysart Kirk, was built in 1874. The artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh visited it the kirk in 1900 and painted a mural in the north transept. This was thought to have been destroyed, but thankfully it was restored in 2004.
The bottommost image shows one of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh panels from Dysart Church, and is courtesy of the Heritage Lottery Fund. Unfortunately the church was shut when I wandered passed, so I was unable to see the Mackintosh mural.
Eye For A Pic 
I never knew that was a lightening rod! Like the way they curved it round the sphere. Saw some great Rennie-Macintosh over at the Glasgow Kelvin Grove Art Gallery & Museum.
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Most churches and similar high buildings, tower blocks etc have lightning rods, Meg, it’s better that the lightning hits them, rather than anything else around 🙂 They are generally made of copper (very good conductor of electricity) and are connected directly to earth, so lightning will actually deviate from it’s course to travel down the rod 🙂
I must have a look at the Rennie-Mackintosh when I’m next in Glasgow, it’s a great style that he developed.
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Gorgeous photos, so happy to find your blog.
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Thank you very much Melinda 🙂 I’m glad you like my blog 🙂
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My mum and dad were married in St Serfs, and I think I was christened there. Lovely photos.
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That’s amazing Su, it’s beautiful down there, a wonderful place to get married, it’s a shame you were too young to remember your christening! 🙂
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Isn’t it. I vaguely remember my younger brother’s christening. Not the church so much but the party at the Victoria Hotel in Kirkcaldy. Actually I mostly remember the cake!!
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Wow…………….. I know the Victoria Hotel, my wife and I had our wedding reception there!!! It is a wonderful place, you would have loved our cake too!! 🙂 🙂
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You’re right; I’m partial to cake in all its manifestations. The last time I was in the Victoria was for my uncle’s wake — almost 20 years ago.
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Lol!! There is a lady in Glenrothes now who makes amazing cakes, my wife had one done for my fiftieth, it included my love of geology, and had the Scottish and Cornish flags draped across it too, it looked amazing!!
That’s a shame that your last memories of the Victoria were for such a sad occasion, it seems to be a popular place for wakes, whenever we pass we peer in looking for weddings, and often it’s a wake that we see instead!
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I love how creative cake-decorating has become. So different to the “old-school” cakes with white icing and a few sugar paste flowers.
I’d never been to a formal “sit-down” wake before my uncle’s. Here in NZ they tend to be much more casual affairs; finger food at the chapel / church hall then back to someone’s house for drinks.
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You have just reminded me about my cousin, when she got married, my Grandad, who used to be a baker (he had been retired for a number of years), made the cake, and iced it. He was worried about the icing because the cake had to be transported to a local hotel, so he made it a wee bit harder than normal. The only trouble was, when my cousin and her groom tried to cut the cake, the knife wouldn’t touch it!!! In the end, it was taken down to the cellar, and a hammer and chisel finally cracked it open!! Instead of having a slice of wedding cake, everyone had a handful of crumbs and some very hard pieces of white and pink plaster like stuff!! Lol! 🙂
Thankfully I’ve never really been to either types of wake, but I know the Cornish ones tend to be either like your New Zealand ones, or held at a pub and everyone gets smashed!
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I shouldn’t laugh, because I imagine that your cousin and her husband weren’t best pleased with their cake, but that really is very, very funny. 🙂
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I think in the end everyone saw the funny side of it, except for maybe my Grandad………….. he was quite a modest unassertive type of person, and I think he was quite upset about it 😦
Out of all my grandparents, I’ve often wished that I hadn’t been so young when he died, I think I would have got on quite well with him 🙂
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I can understand him being upset. I feel the same way about my father’s dad. He died when I was about four, but had lived with us for a while before that. I utterly adored him. 🙂
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It’s always such a shame when we can’t get to know someone properly, for one reason or another 😦
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True. Having “missed out” on my grandparents to a large extent, I’m encouraging the boy-child to get to know his grandfather (my dad) better.
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That’s brilliant Su, I wish I could do the same for our kids, but my parents still live in Cornwall, we only get to see them once a year 😦
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😦 I guess Cornwall is a bit further from you than my dad’s home is from us. Can you drive it in a day? Or do you need an overnight stop somewhere?
It’s about a six hour drive to my dad’s place, but I can share the driving with my son now, so it’s much easier. It helps too that he’s a student / self-employed so has a bit more time flexibility.
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It’s more the cost than the length of time it takes Su, I enjoy the driving. On a good trip it takes 11 hours, but during the summer it can take in excess of 16 hours! We usually do it in one go, but as the only driver, it can be a wee bit tiring! That’s great that you can share the driving with your son 🙂 And 6 hours driving in NZ, I bet you go passed some amazing countryside! 🙂
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Hm; definitely not a “just pop down for the weekend” drive for you.
It’s true that any drive of six hours in NZ is more or less bound to go through some pretty spectacular scenery. Unless it’s a really bad day on an Auckland motorway and the six hours is spent looking at the nodding dog on the parcel tray of the car in front. I think I’m joking, but actually, I’m not sure.
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Lol!!!! I can’t imagine anywhere in NZ having traffic jams!!! It’s one of the many things I love about now living in Scotland, Su, the lack of traffic, especially during the summer holidays, it actually gets quiter on the roads! Even in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the rush hours are relatively non existent 🙂
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Auckland is terrible!!! We have had massive immigration without improvements to the infrastructure. Roads were already congested, and our public transport system is pretty hopeless. I would use the buses but even a trip into the city involves taking two buses for most of the day. Even planning to go anywhere else would take a degree in logistics and project management! And I’m starting from a suburb about 20 km from the CBD with motorway on-ramps less than 5 mins from home.
Once you get out of the city (finally), it is much more like Scotland. I have been stuck in Edinburgh traffic (approaching the old road bridge) a couple of times, but since I was living near London at the time, it didn’t seem that bad. I guess it’s what we get used to.
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That’s a real surprise Su, I never thought of anywhere in New Zealand as being busy and over crowded……………… but then again, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, I know of at least two people who have emigrated to NZ, and I don’t know that many folks. I imagine you have quite a lot of Asian imigrants too. It’s certainly not very good if it takes so long to get in and out of the city you basically live in. Sounds like the NZ government are as bad as the British government when it comes to public transport – we used to have a fantastic system, till Thatcher privatised it in the 1980s!
Alas, you don’t get stuck in traffic so often at the bridge anymore, and likely as not, not at all, soon hopefully, Su, the new Forth Road Bridge is due to open at the end of the month, and we haven’t had tolls on the bridges for about 8 years now 🙂
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