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Celtic 'beehive' monastic cells at Skellig Michael, a tiny island off the south west coast of Ireland. This celtic monastery was used from the 6th century to the 10th century, and its isolation explains the remarkable preservation of these buildings. These beehive structures have a square platform inside and a circular one outside. A set of projecting roof rocks allowed the monks to climb to the top of the structure and open or close a rock that covered the top of chimney. They are enirely constructed using the 'dry-stane' method, without using mortar, but are still watertight to this day.

The carving representing St Blane comes from the pulpit in the present-day Dunblane Cathedral.

St Blane (or Blaan), after whom the town of Dunblane (fort of Blane) is named, was born on the Isle of Bute. The date of his birth is unknown, but folklore tells that he was the illegitimate son of King Aidan and Ertha (or Bertha), the sister of St Cattan (or Cathan). It seems that Ertha herself attributed her pregnancy to a spirit living in a local fountain, which is now a well on the farm of Little Kilchattan.

After the birth of Blane, Cattan set mother and child adrift in a currach, a skiff made from a single hide, thus exposing their fates to the mercy of the sea. This might appear callous and cruel nowadays but it seems to have been a customary way to deal with 'frail maids' - as single mothers were then called. They survived many stormy days and landed eventually in Ireland where Blane was educated as a disciple of Saint Comgall and Saint Kenneth until the age of seven. When he returned to Bute, the journey home from Ireland is said to have been made safely in a boat without oars or rudder, although there might be some confusion and crossover with the legend of the outward journey to Ireland.

On Bute his studies continued under the supervision of his uncle Cattan who ordained him a priest. He established a monastery near Kingarth in the south of the island. St. Cattan named him to succeed as bishop, and he made a pilgrimage to Rome to be anointed as bishop by the Pope.

Several miracles were credited to him, among them the restoration of a dead boy to life. En route home to Scotland after being made a bishop, Blane travelled through England where, on his way through Northumbria, he was told of the death of a local prince. The boy's parents asked him to pray for their son and Blane, on touching the boy, brought him back to life. The parents gifted lands in Northumbria to Blane who gave them to the Scottish church. These lands stayed in the possession of Scotland until repossessed by Edward I, after the defeat of King John Balliol in 1296.

One legend tells that Blane lit tapers with sparks from his finger-tips, and another that he returned to Bute from Rome taking steps of 3 leagues (about six miles) and his final step took him from Ailsa Craig to the site where the ruins of his monastic chapel now stand. Such extravagant tales about the early celtic saints were very common.

Returning to Bute, Blane arrived at Glencallum Bay. He accidentally dropped a bag of anointed soil on the ground which he had brought from Rome. A fisherwoman nearby was asked to help regather the soil, but refused. She was apparently cursed by Blane. Within the burial ground of St Blane's monastery on Bute, men were buried in the upper graveyard and women in the lower, which does suggest that Blane had low regard for women. The burial policy at St. Blane's was not changed until the 9th of August 1661, when Pastor Alexander McLean of the Dunoon Presbytery removed the rule enforcing segregated burial.

Blane went to Central Scotland and there established another monastery in the land of the Picts who inhabited the country north of the river Forth. The monastery was built in the ancient Celtic tradition, as a grouping of 'beehive' monastic cells. This developed into the modern town of Dunblane lying five miles north of Stirling which, even in the 6th century, was an important river crossing on the Forth. Blane is said to have been given a dun or fort as a place to build his monastery, near the Allan Water which flows through Strathallan north of the Forth.

Dunblane Cathedral dates back to the 12th century and stands on the site of Blane's monastery at Dunblane. The original bell from Blane's monastery on the Isle of Bute is preserved in the cathedral. The building today is maintained by Historic Scotland as a church of the Church of Scotland. A cathedral in the Church of Scotland, which is presbyterian in constitution, is simply a parish church like any other, but the Church of Scotland continues to refer to Dunblane, like its other medieval cathedral churches, as a cathedral.

Devotion to St. Blane was popular in Scotland. His monastery at Dunblane became the site of the Dunblane Cathedral and there was a church of St. Blane in Dumfries and another at Kilblane. The ruins of his church at Kingarth, Bute, where his remains were buried, are still standing and form an object of great interest to historians as well as one of Scotland's major historical tourist attractions.

St Blane was a contemporary of St Kentigern (also known as Mungo) who was establishing his church in Glasgow around this time and St Columba, who died on Iona in 597. Dates for this period of history are sometimes guesswork based on conflicting histories or legends, but several sources seem agreed that Blane died in 590. He was canonized on the 10th of August in the year 1000 and his feast day is celebrated each year on that date.