The Tears That Named a Monastery: Scotland’s Earliest Charter Story by Tiffany McCarter Evans Imagine: ChatGPT AI Creation by Tiffany McCarter Evans Imagine Scotland before kings wrote Latin charters, before castles dotted the hills, and before surnames even existed. The year is around A.D. 565 , and into the rugged northeast comes a monk with a fire in his eyes and a student at his side. The monk? Columcille — better known today as St. Columba , the Irish saint who founded Iona. The pupil? Drostan, son of Cosgrach , was destined to be remembered as the quiet saint of Aberdeenshire. Their destination? A patch of land in Buchan that would one day become Deer Abbey . The First Scottish “Charter” We call it a charter, but in truth it’s a miracle story, a legal note, and a folk etymology all rolled into one. It survives not in stone but scribbled into the margins of a gospel book — the Book of Deer , now one of Scotland’s national treasures. Here’s the tale:...