2011 Scottish Reformation Tours
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Steven & Amanda Dilday - 19th-26th October 2011
This couple visited St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, Stirling, Ballater, Braemar Castle, Castle Fraser, Ayrshire and Wigtown.
Roger Clifford -4th-13th October
This Tour visited Dunkeld, Culloden, Loch Ness, Fort William, Ben Nevis, Glen Coe, Oban, Iona, St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Ayrshire, Bannockburn, and Stirling.
Roger writes: After a long flight from Alaska it was truly wonderful to be picked up at the airport by Jimmy & Helen and taken to a comfortable B&B in Lanark. This was my first time in Scotland, so I had a customized trip planned out by Beth. We basically made a big loop around Scotland by car: Culloden, Loch Ness, Fort William, Glen Coe, Isle of Mull & Iona. On Sunday we worshipped at Airdrie RP Church. Monday we continued traveling: St Andrews, Edinburgh, various Covenanter sites and finally Bannockburn and Stirling. Scotland is a beautiful country with a lot of history and Jimmy was continuously pointing things out along the way. It was a fantastic trip. As a climber, I was thrilled to climb Ben Nevis, a classic climb. As a photographer, I loved the beauty and ever-changing light. As a believer, I was inspired by the faith of the Covenanters. I paid close attention because it seems that government repression against the gospel of Christ is upon us again. I saw and learned a lot on this trip but the highlight for me was to meet the modern day Covenanters at Airdrie RP Church. They gave me a warm welcome and made me feel right at home. Pastor Quigley's preaching from God's Word was right on the mark too. I've done quite a bit of traveling and I can easily say this was one of the most enjoyable journeys I've ever had. Many thanks to Beth, Jimmy, Helen & the kind people at Airdrie RP Church for making this possible.
Semester in Scotland Students - 26th-29th September 2011
These students visited St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Ayrshire and Wigtown.
Anna McFall writes: To finish out our Covenanter history class we spent four days visiting sites significant to the Covenanters and what they stood for. However, first I should explain what a Covenanter is. The Scottish Covenanters were those brave few who pledged to uphold Presbyterianism in Scotland, resisting Erastianism, and adherents of the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant. In each of these documents, Christ’s kingship and headship over the church is promoted. This was in stark contrast to what the kings of England wanted at the time: total rule over the church and state.
It all started with Patrick Hamilton. This young man had been educated on the Continent in Lutheranism. Upon returning to Scotland, he began telling his family about the Reformed traditions he had come in contact with. For this, he was arrested, called into account at St Andrews, condemned for heresy, and burned at the stake. Today there is a PH on the ground outside the Church of the Holy Trinity where the stake was. This caused outrage among the people since this man was condemned for merely teaching his family about the Bible.
The next martyr was a man named George Wishart. He also had studied Reformed Theology on the Continent. He was responsible for teaching the Greek New Testament. This conflicted with the Catholic Church. With all the threats he was facing, Wishart began to travel with a bodyguard. The man who was constantly at his side, wielding a double-handed sword, was named John Knox. Eventually Wishart was betrayed into the hands of Cardinal Beaton. Beaton tried Wishart for heresy and condemned him to death. Knox volunteered to die alongside Wishart but Wishart told Knox that he had work to do yet.
It was the spring of 1547 when Protestant nobles took the castle in St Andrews. They had had enough of the tyranny of the Catholic Church. They were later joined by John Knox and persuaded him to become their minister. Up until then he had only been a teacher despite his close relationship with George Wishart. The Protestants dug in and waited for the inevitable attack. The Catholic forces brought in reinforcements from France but were unable to break into the castle for some time. Finally, the Protestants surrendered under the understanding that all within the castle were given life and liberty. The Catholic forces did not honor these terms and the prisoners, Knox included, became galley slaves in the French vessels.
The Cathedral in St Andrews is in ruins now. It was, at one time, one of the most spectacular Cathedrals. In 1378 a fire partly destroyed the Cathedral, and it was not completely restored until 1440. When Protestantism became the dominant form of Christianity in 1559 it was completely stripped of its altars and images. Further destruction of the Cathedral came as one of its walls gave way and instead of being rebuilt, the rocks and rubble were used as building material for new homes in the town.
In 1660, Charles II was invited back to take the throne in what is known as the Restoration. He hated the Covenanters for making him sign the Solemn League and Covenant years earlier when he was trying to hold onto his throne. Now that he had the crown back he set out to destroy those preachers who thought they could hold his nose to the grindstone. The Presbyterians set out to plead their case and sent James Sharp as their representative. Sharp betrayed the Covenanters and accepted the post of Archbishop. Charles II believed in the Divine Right of Kings and made it his goal to establish Erastianism in Scotland. Among the first martyrs was Archibald Campbell. Campbell had presided over Charles II's coronation in Scotland after his signing of the Covenant. He was quoted as saying “I set the crown on the king’s head and now he hastens me to a better crown than his own.” Among those who were martyred in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket were James Guthrie (a pastor in Stirling) and Archibald Johnston (assisted in the drawing up of the National Covenant). One of the men Charles particularly wanted to kill was Alexander Henderson. Henderson had died of natural causes, however, before Charles returned to the throne. The king had to settle for sending soldiers to deface Henderson’s grave.
In 1662 it was decreed that all ministers had to come under control of Bishops by law. As a result, over 400 ministers left the church and preached in fields, houses and barns. The king had not anticipated such a loss of clergy and in order to fill the vacant churches, ministers from the Highlands were brought in. These men were horribly inept and people did not want to go to the churches but preferred to go to fields to hear ministers. These field meetings became known as conventicles. Anyone caught attending a conventicle was punished with heavy fines and had to quarter troops in their house. Anyone caught preaching at a conventicle was tried and executed.
Tension came to a head in 1666. An old man named Grier had been fined for not attending church. Soldiers were sent to his house to exact punishment. They were going to roast him alive when word reached a group of Covenanters who had come into town for food. The Covenanters went to Grier’s aid and defeated the troops. Knowing that they would be accused of rebellion, they decided to go to the Privy Council to plead their case. On their way to Edinburgh, many people joined them in their journey until their numbers swelled to almost 1000. When they reached the city they found the city gates locked to them. They decided to disband quietly when a party of soldiers attacked them at Rullion Green. The Covenanters were defeated. About 50 were killed, and 100 captured, but many were able to hide in the darkness. The majority of the captured were executed; their heads and hands were cut off and sent to towns as a warning.
The apex of the Covenanter movement came in 1679. In May of that year, a group of five Covenanters captured Archbishop Sharp on his way from St Andrews to London. When they searched him they found death warrants for other Covenanters on his person. They believed that God had given him into their hands, so they drug him from his carriage and executed him in front of his 18 year old daughter. The Covenanters as a whole did not condone this. Their official stance was to promote self-defense but not murder. As a result, the Covenanters began to show up to field meetings unarmed. In June a field meeting of 300 people in Drumclog was discovered by a band of dragoons. Their minister was preaching that day on suffering for Christ's sake and as the dragoons drew near he turned to the congregation and said that they had the theory and now it was time to put it into practice. The dreaded Captain James Claims of Claverhouse led 150 soldiers into the peaceful hillside and demanded the minister be handed over. The men lined up and respond by singing Psalm 76. As some of the soldiers advanced, their horses got stuck in the bog, and the Covenanters seized the chance to overtake the soldiers.
Covenanter fame spread as a result and an uprising was planned. About 3000 Covenanters banded together but they had no leadership. While taking their time to devise a game plan, they set up camp for a fortnight. In the meantime, the king sent 15000 professional troops to deal with these opportunistic Scots. The two forces met in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. The Covenanters needed to hold the bridge in order to have a fighting chance. Eventually the men on the bridge ran out of ammunition. Once the troops came over the bridge, the Covenanters’ ranks broke and they fled. About 400 were killed and 1200 were captured and imprisoned in Greyfriairs Kirk in Edinburgh. After months of being neglected in the open prison, the Covenanters who were left alive were deported. Now the king’s soldiers filled Southern Scotland and violence increased.
Some of the sites we visited were testimonies to the violence that occurred between 1679 and 1688. These years are known as the Killing Times; during which a Bible was considered “treasonable papers” and illegal. Similarly, being out after dark was punishable by death. In the most tranquil woods in Muirkirk lies the grave of William Adams. William was a young man who had been working at one of the nearby farms. Every day he met his fiancé near the stream for lunch. On one particular day he had been sitting by the stream, waiting for his girl, with his Bible open. Some soldiers were passing by and saw that he was reading the Bible. They shot him on sight, no questions asked. His fiancé heard the shot and rushed to see what had happened. The soldiers were crossing the narrow bridge over the steam when she crossed their path. One of the soldiers had tried to push her off the bridge and so enraged her that she pulled him off his horse. He was inclined to kill her for embarrassing him but decided to let her go. She found William dead beside the steam and buried him there herself.
The last site that we visited was the Martyrs’ Stake in Wigtown. It was here in 1685 that that two Margarets were drowned in the rising tide of the Bladnoch River. Margaret McLachlan was a 63 year old woman who had been convicted of attending conventicles. She was arrested while praying in her house. Margaret Wilson was an 18 year old woman who, along with her sister Agnes and brother Thomas, had been kicked out of their house by their parents for attending conventicles. They wandered through the hills for some time before being attested. Gilbert Wilson, their father, was given the opportunity to buy his younger daughter’s freedom for 100 pounds, which he did. His older daughter however was sentenced to death. Both Margarets were tied to stakes in the river during the low tide. The older Margaret was tied much further out while the younger was forced to watch her drown. They told Margaret Wilson that if she would pray for the king and relent, she would not suffer the same fate. Instead, she sang from Psalm 25 “To Thee I lift my soul, O Lord; I trust in Thee, my God; let me not be ashamed, nor foes triumph over me.” She also drowned when the tide came in. In the same town that year three men, William Johnstone, John Milroy and George Walker, were hanged. All five of the martyrs are commemorated by headstones in the Kirk nearby.
RPCS Congregational Day Tour - 27th August 2011
42 people from the Airdrie and Glasgow RP Churches went on a Reformation Tour to Edinburgh. They visited St. Giles Cathedral, the National Museum, the Magdalen Chapel, Greyfriars kirkyard, the Grassmarket, and the Psalter exhibition at the University of Edinburgh
Gary Gunn writes:
Recently, a group from Airdrie and Glasgow Reformed Presbyterian churches spent a day in Edinburgh touring sites which were of significance to the Reformation and Covenanters in Scotland. The tour was led by the able Jimmy Fisher of ‘Reformation Tours’.
Our first stop began in the very centre of Edinburgh at the famous St Giles church. Here we viewed a copy of the National Covenant and various other historical artefacts connected to the events of the Reformation from the time of John Knox. Of particular interest, was the famous cast of a stool which had been thrown at the Dean of Edinburgh by Jenny Geddes- when the liturgy and prayer book of the monarch was forced on the Scottish people. There is also a formidable statue of Knox to be seen, along with the marble tomb of James Graham - Earl of Montrose, who although signing the National Covenant in 1638, was led to side with Charles I against them. He ended up leading the king’s military efforts in Scotland- and at the end of a long struggle, the king eventually surrendered to the Covenanters, Montrose was captured and taken to the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, where he was executed. His remains were buried in St Giles many years later, and he was given the marble tomb due to his royalist service.
Perhaps the most poignant area is actually outside the cathedral- where John Knox himself is buried. Although proudly marked in times past, the grave is now located under a parking space - the High Court in Edinburgh using the courtyard for that purpose. Charles II’s monument towers high, while John Knox is forgotten. The parable in the courtyard is unavoidable.
After this we visited the National Museum down on George IV bridge- where there is a section dedicated to this era of Scottish history. On display were John Knox's St Giles pulpit (a personal favourite) – early prints of the Bible, communion silver from various churches throughout Scotland significant to the Covenanter/Reformation history. We also saw a mask that one preacher had to wear to avoid being identified by spies in his congregation and instruments used by the authorities for either execution, or to cause pain while questioning seceders.
Then was a brief visit to Magdalene Chapel. This is an ancient building with a complex history. Relevant to our visit was the fact that this is the place where the first ever General Assembly of the Scottish Kirk was held in 1560 in the era of John Knox. Later it housed the 1578 General Assembly, over which Andrew Melville moderated – and the plans for the famous Second Book of Discipline were discussed. Across the street in The Three Sisters the National Covenant itself was drawn up in 1638; and ten years later after invading Scotland, Oliver Cromwell himself was based there. So this street, and this particular chapel, are richly infused with history. The chapel was used for Covenanter conventicles in 1660-1680, and many well known leaders who had been martyred in the Grassmarket were taken here to be cleaned and dressed in grave-clothes before burial, and the very table used is still there. At the close of our visit we sung two Psalms to mark the occasion.
After a brief visit to the Grassmarket, where Jimmy Fisher gave a talk at the site of the executions, we made our way to Greyfriars Kirk. This I think was a highlight for many of us. To be on the site where thousands of Christians gathered, at a time of apostasy, to clearly proclaim what they believed and to show dedication to their Lord and Christ was extremely searching and encouraging. The mind’s eye could picture a crowd and the National Covenant being read and signed. We were shown many of the graves, even of those who persecuted the Church. We saw the courtyard where 1200 covenanters were imprisoned after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge; also the grave of Alexander Henderson, which is defaced by musket-shot on order of the king who saw him as a thorn in his flesh!
The tour concluded with a visit to a Psalm exhibition at Edinburgh University, where we were treated to an overview of the history of worship in the Scottish church. They had on display the original copy of ‘History of the Reformation’ by John Knox.
The day was a success, and very soul provoking. The LORD did great things in Scotland. Martyn-Lloyd Jones once addressed a group of Scottish ministers in commemorating the Reformation and in doing so closed with a question similar to that of Elisha… “Where is the God of Elijah? ….and… where is the God of John Knox?”
I think it was an excellent question.
Apprentice Boys - August 2011
This group took a one day tour of Edinburgh.
Bob Stuart writes: Finally the day was here for our “Covenanters Tour”. The tour guide for the day was Mr. Jimmy Fisher from Lanark. The Branch Club members assembled at the Covenanter's memorial in the Grassmarket early in the morning for an eagerly awaited tour. The club was not to be disappointed as Jimmy was an outstanding guide and his passion and emotion was evident throughout the day.
The tour begun in earnest and we listened intently to Jimmy recounting the incredible sacrifices in days gone by and also the levels of torture and humiliation that the Covenanters went through to uphold our Protestant Faith. The tour moved from the Grassmarket along to the Magdalen Chapel where we were allowed special entry by the curator Mr. Sinclair Horne.
This indeed was a special occasion and the aura that the chapel had was something that you would need to experience to believe. It was as if you were in the presence of the great men and women who had graced the chapel in days gone by. Sinclair was inspirational and had a real depth of feeling about the chapel and the past sacrifices which was not lost on any of us in attendance.
One of the highlights was the “Deacons Chair” which sits in the centre of the chapel, recently restored and quite magnificent.
Our next stop was into Greyfriars Kirkyard. We stopped firstly at the Covenanter's Prison. We were fortunate enough to get a full brief from our tour guide on the levels of torture and punishment that went on inside for all Covenanters who refused to swear an oath to King Charles at the time.
As we passed through the Kirkyard we stopped and paused at the burial site of Alexander Henderson who was responsible for drawing up the National Covenant. Next stop was the Martyrs monument. This again was a splendid monument and fitting to the martyrs and Covenanters. It was of course thanks to the women folk who made sure that the Covenanters were treated after death and buried properly unlike the common criminals that the King had wanted them to be seen as.
Our day continued onto the National Museum of Scotland. Inside we were shown the remains of the old guillotine from the Grassmarket site, as well as other items used for the torture of the Covenanters. Also a highlight was seeing the pulpit that John Knox had used in his preaching and promotion of the Protestant Faith. There were a number of interesting articles and facts inside the museum. Also our tour guide provided a continuous commentary throughout which was invaluable.
As the tour was drawing to a close we headed to St Giles Cathedral, where we went inside for a few moments to look at the tomb of the Marquis of Argyll. We were then directed outside to the side of the cathedral to look at the grave of John Knox. This alas was a source of frustration and disgust as his grave is marked by a small yellow square in car parking spot 23!!!!
Also it is positioned to the rear of a massive statue of the then King Charles on his horse. This was an incredible gesture and one suspects indicative of the time and ignorance of the then King.
This was the end of the tour and our Vice President gave a vote of thanks to Mr Jimmy Fisher on behalf of all the members, who also responded with a round of applause. It was a great day and thoroughly enjoyed by all.
O'Neil/Reese Tour - 27th - 30th July 2011
This group visited St. Andrews, Edinburgh, rural sites, and Wigtown.
Margaret McClennan Day Tour - 22nd June 2011
This Tour visited rural Covenanting sites in Ayrshire.
RPCS Congregational Day Tour - 28th May 2011
On Saturday the 28th May, Reformation Tours, a ministry of Presbytery, ran another Reformation Tour for those in the Scottish RP Church.
Thirty men, women, and children from the Airdrie and Glasgow RP churches gathered bright and early in Airdrie for the day trip. Our first stop was in the village of Sanqhuar, where in 22 June 1680 Richard Cameron and twenty horsemen rode into the town, and having sung a psalm, they read what became known as the Sanquhar declaration. In it, Cameron and his followers, rejected the authority of Charles II because of his covenant breaking and harsh rule.
Then it was on to Anwoth and the church where Samuel Rutherford, the famous Westminster Divine and author, had ministered in the 1600’s.
In Wigtown we were joined by some of the members of the Stranraer RP congregation and together we made our way out to the graves of Margaret Wilson and Margaret MacLauchlan. These two woman had been drowned on 11 May 1685 in the Solway Firth because of their refusal to deny Christ in their adherence to the Covenants and the Reformation. It was at the memorial stone that we sang Psalm 25, and the Rev. Kenneth Stewart led us in prayer.
It was a great day out, when many of us learned something more of the Lord’s work in Scotland in the past. It was also a day when we were able to look around and see those whom Christ has brought into the church in the past year and were encouraged by what Christ is doing in Scotland today.
Airdrie GO Team Day Tour - 25th April 2011
This group visited Covenanter and Reformation sites in Edinburgh.
If you’d like any information about taking or organising a tour please email us at RefTours@aol.com
What others have said about Reformation Tours
"I am so glad that I came on the Tour. It was refreshing in a very holistic way: physically because of the change of pace, beautiful scenery, fresh air, and walking; intellectually because of all that I learned about history and geography; spiritually because of entering into the lives and events that involved treasuring and defending the wonderful truths of the Gospel and sovereign rule of the Lord Jesus over His Church; and emotionally because of all the good conversation, laughter, new friends, and fellowship."
Jan B.
"A wonderful experience; a must for all believers. It increased my knowledge, challenged my faith, and I met so many new brothers and sisters in Christ."
Mark C.
"The week was full of Christian fellowship while being taught about the history of the Reformation as we visited the beautiful sights in Scotland. Dick's thoughtful and well-planned tours combined with Susan's attention to all our needs made this trip one I would encourage anyone to take who would like to learn how to better love and serve Christ through the examples of the Scottish martyrs."
Larry and Kathy G.
"Thank you for showing us so many ways that God has worked and is working in Scotland - it reminded us that He works here - and will work in our Church here, as well."
Jean and Rick N.
