Fun with Flags - The Saltire

We drove to Athelstaneford in East Lothian today to visit the birthplace of Scotland's national flag, the Saltire. There is a small exhibition centre located in this restored dovecot, which is just behind the parish church in the village of Athelstaneford.

Scotland's flag is the oldest in Europe and the Commonwealth and originated in a battle fought close by Athelstaneford in the dark ages, believed to have been 832AD.

An army of Picts under King Angus, and aided by a contingent of Scots, was invading the Lothians (at that time still Northumbrian territory), and found itself surrounded by a larger force of Saxons led by Athelstan.

Fearing the outcome, Angus led prayers for deliverance and was rewarded by seeing a cloud formation of a white saltire (the diagonal cross on which St Andrew had been martyred) against the blue sky.

The king vowed that if, with the saints help, he gained the victory, then Andrew would thereafter be the patron saint of Scotland. The Picts and Scots did win, and the Saltire became the flag of Scotland.