It rings a bell ...

Tuesday 29th July

The Kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen

http://www.carillons.org/aberdeen/ (updated)

What a fabulous visit we had today! We arrived at The Kirk of St Nicholas around midday and met up with Dr Authur Winfield who was able to take Team Carillon up to the tower to see the clavier AND the bells; both areas not normally open to visitors. We didn't actually count the number of steps up to the clavier room but there were a fair few - a lot less than Loughborough, though. The higher we climbed, the more narrow the steps became. The Clavier is situated next to the clock mechanism and, although the clock chimes are not activated at the moment we could see and hear the clock mechanism at work.

This tower houses the largest carillon in Britain; the carillon belongs to the city not the church.

Caroline makes her way up to the clavier room and the bell tower. Once through the door at the top of this staircase we had to cross a narrow balcony overlooking the north transept (see pics below) and then stairs become much narrower open wooden flights.

Caroline inspects the clavier.
The clavier is more compact than Loughborough in as much as the batons are slightly closer together and slightly shorter in length. Caroline says it is a much lighter clavier to play than Loughborough which allowed for greater expression when playing.

Caroline is invited to play a piece. She chooses 'Prelude No. 5' Van Den Gehyn, the music for which she just happened to be carrying with her!

Caroline made it up the even narrower steps to the bell tower but only just and only for a few seconds. There is another flight of steps going up another level but the whole of Team Carillon declined the offer much to Dr Winfield's relief!

Team Carillon make their way back across a narrow gantry type walkway

View looking down from the narrow gantry to the showpiece of the North Transept

This beautiful stained glass window, designed by Shona McInness, was installed in the North Transept in 1990 when it was refurbished by the Oil Industry; amongst the things depicted are the famous oil rigs.

Once back down again we were treated to a fantastic tour of the place which included a viewing of one of the Kirk's greatest treasures - four large needlework panels, sewn in the 17th century by Mary Jamesone, daughter of George Jamesone the earliest known Scottish portrait painter. The panels depict various scenes from the old testament but set in 17th century Aberdeen!

Although The Kirk is steeped in over 800 years of fascinating history, it not only looks back, it looks to the future, too, with its major conservation, restoration and development project which is now in progress. The project seeks to 're-establish the Kirk as the very heart of Aberdeen and the community at large.' The Kirk is a 'symbol of Scottish heritage' and the project aims to provide the community not only with a place of worship but a space for entertainment, leisure and education, too. You can read more about the project at: http://www.themitherkirkproject.org.uk. The East Kirk has recently been home to archaeologists and there is evidence of the area having had a place of worship (though not necessarily Christian) on this site since as early as the 9th century - perhaps even before - there are links to the archaeologists regular reports on the website.

We'd like to thank Dr Winfield and the staff at The Kirk for giving us such a warm welcome and informative tour. We wish the project every success and look forward to returning in the future.

And now ...

We are settling down for a 'good night's kip' and looking forward to a two hour jouney first thing in the morning so that we arrive at Perth in plenty of time for Caroline's full recital which will be around midday.