war memorial

I was in Peebles helping a friend move some furniture today. I had a bit of time to kill and wondered into the courtyard outside the museum in Peebles.  The Peebles war memorial caught my eye and in particular I was taken with the mosaics which decorate the cross. Its amazing what you see when you're not looking for anything in particular! They reminded me of the mosaics I have seen in the south of Spain which are heavily influenced by the Moors when they occupied Spain for 700 years. When I went home, I did some research and found that the hexagonal shrine of white stone surmounted by a dome and flanked by wall was designed by Mr. B.N.H. Orphoot. Standing inside the shrine is the cross in Sicilian limestone, inlaid with Sicilian mosaics. The bronze memorial tablets are set into the walls at the back of the shrine and these are framed with Sicilian mosaics. It turns out that Sicily was also a land that spent some time under the rule of the Moors.