In the very same churchyard of Kettins, alongside the Pictish stone cross that dates from the 7th or 8th Century, there is a much more "recent" artifact - a bronze bell, the "Marie Troon", cast in the year 1519 by a friend of Erasmus, one Hans Popenuyder, for the Monastery of Our Lady of Troon in the town of Grobbendonk near Antwerp.

How it got to Kettins is a mystery. It is known that it was stolen in 1578, probably by Dutch mercenaries, and perhaps came to Kettins via the Hallyburton family. It was gifted to the church in 1697 and for many years was the church bell that summoned the faithful to worship. It was taken down and put in the churchyard in 1893 where it stands to this day.

The Grobbendonkers of course want it back - but have settled instead for a new bell copied from the old one. For many years the Lords of Grobbendonk were the Schetz family whose coat of arms features, coincidentally, a raven on a mountain.

Even spookier, for those afficionados of the Da Vinci Code, you will recall that those who think such things are not coincidental, have pointed out that a direct northing from Rosslyn Chapel, (not built by the Templars themselves but by a William St Clair in 1484, based on the Temple in Jerusalem), takes one very neatly to the Castle of Mey right at the top of Scotland, home of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Get a map and check it out for yourself, and while you are drawing your line between Rosslyn and Mey, see just how close it gets to Kettins Kirk!!

When William St Clair started to build Rosslyn, the Cistercian Abbey at Coupar Angus, no more than a mile away from Kettins, was the richest abbey in Scotland. Coupar Angus Abbey was destroyed in 1559, Rosslyn attacked in 1571 and its altars removed by order of the General Assembly in 1592 and by 1650 Cromwell's troops used it as a stable when they attacked the neaby castle. As late as 1688 Rosslyn was a ruin, but still subject to a mob attack.

The bell, although cast in 1519, was only gifted to Kettins Church in 1697, after the Civil War, but before the hated "Union" with England. Between 1578 and 1697 no one knows where it was or whose it was. Is there a possible connection with Rosslyn? Is it possible that rather than the Halliburtons acquiring the bell from Grobbendonk, the bell was in the possession of the St Clairs, who possibly passed it on to the Cistercians of Coupar Angus for safe keeping?

One thing is for sure ... if there is a da Vinci code it will keep us all guessing for the next millenium.