Fighting Christians

Day off today. Weather beautiful so off for a nice walk. First to Bathgate's Subway sandwich shop for a Veggie Delight then to the ancient village of Torphichen in the lovely Bathgate Hills. I had , some time past, agreed to a charity walk around there but could not find the route today- memory problems strike again.
The area brims with history- with Iron Age hill forts and the burial site of Cairnpapple. On the triumph of Christianity the area in the 12th century came under the aegis of the Knights Hospitaller. The Preceptory still stands in the village and in now owned by the Church of Scotland. These mediaeval fighting Orders are fascinating and would have contained many an interesting character. The last preceptor Sir James Sandilands sold the land to the Crown at the Reformation and then bought it back. When the new local hospital was built in Livingston it was named after those knights whose land extended to what is now that new town. Odd though, in this multi-cultural age a hospital is named after a group intent on bashing Muslims!(although there were brothers simply tasked with looking after the sick)
All in all a happy day.