Cairn Holy

Cairn Holy Chambered Cairns: now there’s an intriguing location on the map of south-west Scotland.

It consists of two cairns, one of which has a concave façade of tall pillar stones. Their location offered a fine view of Wigtown Bay, and were built before 3000 BC. Cairn Holy II is traditionally thought to be the tomb of the mythical Scottish king Galdus, but, ironically, it is too old to have been his grave, even if he had existed. 'Cairn Holy' should really be Cairnholy which derives from the Gaelic Càrn na h-ulaidhe which may be translated ‘cairn of the stone tomb’.

There is little that is holy, or sanctified, about death. It is demeaning and painful, not glorious and magnificent. Many of those who flee the trials of this life through a self-inflicted death may find themselves in a worse place, awaiting judgement. Even the wealthy and powerful sons of Japheth who built these tombs, who recalled their father’s or grandfather’s deliverance from a deadly deluge, knew they could not elude death’s icy grip as it stalked them and carefully claimed them; an even more distant ancestor made certain of that. Whether king and chieftain, servant and slave, tomb occupant or tomb builder: all shall appear before the great God to render account.

Wrote sagacious Job:

Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? and are not his days as the days of an hireling? As a servant longeth for the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the end of his work So have I had as an inheritance the months of vanity, and painful nights have been appointed unto me. If I laid me down, I said, When shall I arise? and measuring the evening, I am even full with tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and filthiness of the dust: my skin is rent, and become horrible. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they are spent without hope.

Remember that my life is but a wind, and that mine eye shall not return to see pleasure. -chapter 7:1-7, Geneva Bible.

Job could also see, though dimly and with the squinting eyes of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, Death's Destroyer:

For I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on the earth. 19:25