Tuesday 24 March 2009

Glamis Castle 5








As you can see from my blog header, I'm partial to a nice sundial. This, however has to be the mother of all sundials. According to the website www.scottishsundials.co.uk ( a prime example that there's a website for everything under the sun....... pardon the pun!) this is one of the finest sundials in the world. A polyhedron design of 80 dials is supported by four rampant lions, each of which bears a shield with separate dials in their forepaws. It is thought to have been constructed around 1670 and its base is carved with the equation of time.
I'm not entirely sure what it is about sundials that fascinates me, perhaps it's the idea of an era when time wasn't transportable the way it is now. Our lives are dominated by time or the lack of it, and it's everywhere you look. On our wrists, on the walls, on TV, on our computers, we can't escape it. Whereas in those days if you wanted to know the time, you had to seek out a sundial! And if it was cloudy then time stood still........ perfect in Scotland.

2 comments:

  1. Such interesting pics..i like sundials and old clocks too..so true, time does control us

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  2. I was going to make the point if you hadn't, that Scotland doesn't strike me as ideal sundial territory :)

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