SOME 100 years before Saint Columba established his monastery at Iona, when the British Isles were only just beginning to feel the tremors of the fall of the Roman empire, St Ninian arrived in Galloway and established a religious community among the Celtic peoples of what would later become southern Scotland.

Around 1600 years after Ninian established his base at Whithorn, what has been termed the cradle of Christianity in Scotland is about to get the setting it is due. Historic Scotland, in charge of the country’s ancient monuments, has conducted a £250,000 renovation of its Whithorn site to help promote Scotland’s earliest connection with the Christian faith.

Among the treasures of the restored site, due to open next month on Good Friday, March 25, are about 60 carved stones from the fifth to 10th centuries AD, which offer a glimpse into the world of southern Scotland at a time when shifting patterns of peoples ruled the region and the power of the Church was far from assured.

The stones, which survive in sizes from fragments to crosses two metres tall, many inscribed with runes and carvings, would have been erected as markers in the landscape, proclaiming Christian and secular power .

“Whithorn now is on the periphery of Scotland. At that time, in the seventh and eighth centuries onwards, it was very much a focus of Christianity, very much at the centre of things spreading Christianity eastwards,” explained Richard Welander, head of collections with Historic Scotland. He added: “As a collection, its significance is that the stones are located within a relatively tight part of the South Machars area, which makes a significant statement of the importance of the area as the cradle of Christianity in Scotland.”

Among the stones is the world-famous Latinus Stone, the earliest Christian stone in Scotland, which dates from about 450AD, less than 20 years after Ninian’s death. It derives its name from its Latin inscription: “We praise you the Lord! Latinus, descendant of Barravados, aged 35, and his daughter, aged four, made a sign here.”

Peter Yeoman, senior inspec tor of ancient monuments with Historic Scotland, explained that Latinus was probably a high-status native, whose name was derived from the Roman language. Yet his ancestor, Barravados, has a Celtic name.

“His immediate descendants and family are clearly making an association there with the Roman world, even though the stone was erected 40 to 50 years after the Romans withdrew from Britain, which did not include Galloway,” Yeoman said.

The stone also carries a “chi-rho” symbol, the first two letters of Christ’s name in Greek, Chi (X) and Rho (P), one overlaid on the other. This predates the use of the cross as a Christian symbol.

Along with the Latinus stone, the collection includes an “explosion” of stones from the so-called Whithorn School of carving. These monumental carved stone crosses were churned out in workshops outside the church, especially between around 900AD and into the 11th century.

“The message to anybody who saw them was of the power and influence of the church at Whithorn,” said Yeoman.

It was Ninian’s legacy that drove Whithorn’s reputation as an important ecclesiastical centre in the early mediaeval period. Ninian was known throughout Europe and is one of Scotland’s foremost saints, along with Columba, Mungo and Andrew.

“That was the basis of [Whit horn’s] power, wealth and auth ority,” said Yeoman. It went on to become an important centre for pilgrims, including kings and queens of Scotland .

But before this recognition, Whithorn was taken over by Anglians, who expanded into the area in about 700AD from their Nor thumbrian stronghold. It is an Angle, the Venerable Bede, who tells us most of what is known about Ninian.

Writing about 300 years after St Ninian’s death, Bede says that Ninian, “a most reverend and holy man of the British nation, who had been regularly instructed at Rome,” converted the southern Picts.

Bede refers to Ninian’s mon astery as commonly called “the White House, because he built a church of stone, which was not usual amongst the Britons”. The name Whithorn is thought to derive from the Old English “hwit erne”, or white house.

However, Ninian’s success with the southern Picts seems to have been short-lived , since St Patrick, St Colum ba and St Kentigern (Mungo) all refer to Pictish apostasy.

Dr Stephen Driscoll of Glasgow University, an expert on the early mediaeval period, said a haul of artefacts found locally showed Whithorn was a major trading centre when Christianity arrived.

“We have to take on board the idea that Whithorn in the fifth and sixth centuries, as it’s becoming an important church, is also an important trading place. That perhaps accounts for its religious importance. It seems as though Whithorn and that peninsula were really a pivotal place,”Driscoll said.