Alex's photos

A few weeks ago Alex was asked to carry out a survey of the decaying stonework at the top of the Church of the Holy Rude which, as well as being the second-oldest building in Stirling (after the Castle), is one of the hill-top structures that make up the Stirling skyline. The Holy Rude will always be kind of special to us as its refurbishment back in 1989 was the first large sub-contract that Impressions in Stone (our wee business) landed and was the one that brought us from Glasgow to Stirling. Some years later, Alex was asked to carve a plaque to commemorate the coronation of King James VI in 1567; The Church of the Holy Rude is the only church in Britain, other than Westminster Abbey, to have held a coronation and still be a functioning church today. The commemorative plaque is embedded in the floor of the altar and was unveiled in a special ceremony, which Alex was invited along to, by the Queen in 1997.

Over the years, we’ve carried out various bits of restoration works to the Holy Rude, so Alex feels he knows the place pretty well. However, the area he was surveying a few weeks ago was somewhere not seen by very many visitors to the church - right at the very top of the building. I went berserk when he came home and told me that he’d had to clamber around one of the top finials to get a proper look at the stone. I’ll not say much more about his antics that day just in case any over-zealous H&S officers come across this blog!

While he was swinging from the dodgy stonework, Alex found time to take a few photos of the fantastic view. Since the Stirling Observer (our local newspaper) is always asking its readers to send in photos of the surrounding area, I emailed a selection of Alex's along with some short captions to explain where the photos had been taken from. I didn't really expect the paper to publish any of them.

Imagine my surprise when I opened The Observer tonight and saw, taking up the whole of page two, Alex’s photos and a wee article about them! The article had been written as if Alex had been interviewed, or had submitted text – neither was the case! I just emailed the photos with a short explanation underneath each one. We reckon the journalist must have checked out our website to get a little bit of background information and added a few quotes (plucked out of thin air) to make the piece a bit more interesting!

We won’t be suing for defamation of character as it was great to get a wee bit of free publicity – and the ribbing that Alex is getting from everyone is a small price to pay! Hope you like the pretty pictures:



My crazy husband clambered around this narrow ledge...



...to get this lovely shot!