August, 2007

Spynie Palace, North of Elgin, Grampian

Spynie Palace is a lovely castle ruin located about 3 miles north of Elgin. It was originally the palace of the Bishop of Moray in northeastern Scotland and apparently sat on a sea loch, providing direct access to safe anchorage at Lossiemouth. Today the village that surrounded the palace and the loch itself are gone. The remains sit on a small hill, the backside, which is heavily wooded, leads down to the extinct loch below. What remains today is a part of the tower house, built in the 16th century by Bishop David Stewart, as well as walls of the great hall, and parts of the southeast and northeast towers inhabited by barn owls. David's Tower gives the visitor a sense of scale and size found in many medieval palaces. Although the outer walls remain, the inner floors are no longer in place though it is possible to reach the roof of the palace by walking along the edges of each floor.

I was impressed by this structure and spent several hours on different occasions walking around the site. I worked on several ideas, none of which came together with any great success. Elgin is not far from Nairn, the legendary home of Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor. Wandering around this palace Shakespeare's Macbeth kept rambling through my mind. Although Shakespeare's play has little to do with the actual history of this location it does haunt my mind when in northeast Scotland. Imagine my delight when I wandered into the basement of Spynie Palace and felt myself within a set of this play known as the "Scottish Play" to theatre folks.

I photographed the passageway leading to the basement, details of light skimming along stone, dark corridors leading to a hint of light in the distance. Above me was the ceiling of this basement, a completely intact, domed structure. One small window and a small artificial spotlight illuminated the texture of stones set on their edges to create this circular ceiling. It had a mysterious feeling to it. Although the witches of the play were brewing their concoction in the woods, I could easily imagine them crafting their sorcery in a cellar like this one. I worked and worked in this basement, not knowing which image would work, trusting my gut feeling that I had found a place that would give me an image for the project.

Later when editing for TOUCHSTONES, the image of this ceiling kept moving in the selection process. Pairing this image with Dunino Fairy Glen (Plate 23) made the most sense in the end. The well, a black round circle surrounded by gray stone, backlit by the light pouring through the woods has a light, airy feeling to it with only the center darkness providing any ambivalence in the image. The ceiling at Spynie Palace is a large black circle filling the frame. It has a light center surrounded by darkness falling off from the light on the right side. It feels like a dark and mysterious place, with very little light encroaching on it darkness. This pairing created an echo of composition, a playing off of forms and tonalities. In one you are looking down, in the other you are looking up. Neither completely explains itself and both create an air of mystery. One is a detail of the ceiling the other is a general view of the area. Yet when you look at the Dunino image you are drawn to the dark circle in the center of the frame. The ceiling image could almost be the vision you see as you look into the well of the first image.