2026 PAS Summer Fieldtrip: Carlisle, Whithorn, Ruthwell
Saturday 13 June to Sunday 14 June
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There is a theme developing to explore the periphery of Pictland, as well as focussing on its heartland in eastern Scotland. This trip includes a private tour of the Roman gallery at Tullie Museum in Carlisle, where the display has had a recent makeover. It contains a wealth of treasures, both Roman and Celtic, found along Hadrian’s Wall and beyond. This was the culture which the Northern tribes witnessed in the centuries before they were even identified as Picts. St Cuthbert was famously preaching at Carlisle when he prophesied the death of King Ecfrith and the Battle of Dunnichen.
We will visit the cathedral, which has preserved many medieval features whose style relates to Scottish churches. It has one of the finest tracery windows in the country; and medieval wooden choir furnishings which include not just the stalls but a series of contemporary paintings on the back.
After a group dinner on the Saturday, we will go by bus to Whithorn on Sunday. We pass the hillfort
at Trusty’s Hill which displays the southernmost Pictish symbol carved into the bedrock- but can not stop there: sadly, there is no room for the bus to turn and the climb is quite a demanding scramble. At Whithorn, we will be hosted by the Whithorn Trust volunteers who provide lunch and a tour of their reconstructed early medieval settlement. Adrian Maldonado, from the National Museum of Scotland, who has carried out recent work in explaining the sequence of events at the priory site, will give us an expert guided tour, which includes the beautiful stone crosses display created by Peter Yeoman. The site takes us to the core of Christianity in Scotland
with late Roman and early Christian monuments, as well as the 10th-century collection of crosses.
The involvement of ‘St Ninian’, one of the most popular saints in Scottish church dedications, now appears to be a spelling mistake (he was probably the Irish monk Uiniau).
We stop at Ruthwell on the way back, where the volunteers will produce tea. Jane Geddes will provide a commentary to one of the most remarkable monuments in the Insular world, one of the earliest surviving free-standing crosses, with an iconographic scheme to include all viewers: the Britons, Anglo-Saxons, and the Roman church followers. It is inscribed , in runes, with the poem ‘The Dream of theRood’.
The bus brings us back to Carlisle by 18.00.
Carlisle is well served by trains and busses, but reaching Whithorn and Ruthwell is a rare opportunity because they are far off the beaten track. Participants will have to book their own accommodation for Saturday night, June 13, preferably within easy reach of
the station area where the bus starts and finishes.
Costs: £41, to include Bus, Tullie House, Ruthwell,
Whithorn, & Field guide. Optional extras: £24 Satur-
day dinner + £12 Sunday picnic.
Timing: Saturday afternoon. Self-guided walk
around Carlisle Cathedral. You will be sent a guide
on what to see. 16.00-17.30, Tullie House museum.
18.30 Casa Romana dinner. Sunday, bus departs 0830
from Halston Hotel (near the station). Bus returns to
Carlisle (estimate: 18.00)
All members will be sent an email with details of how to book the field trip.