It IS SAID a picture paints a thousand words, which leaves me little space to add many more.

I don’t remember the date I first saw this picture (see above), but I remember the impact it had on me. It captures an imagined moment in which the legendary Viking Althamer sails along the coast of the Firth of Forth.

It is the work of Andrew Hillhouse, an artist who sadly died in 2018 at the young age of 53. I wish I had been wise enough to seek him out and talk with him about history and his art when I’d had the opportunity.

His widow Vicky has told me of his modesty, that he wouldn’t call himself an artist because he was a working man with a job to pay the bills. He once wrote that he was “still just a guy who likes to doodle in his spare time”.

Some doodles! His art is stunning: full of historical detail and atmosphere, and his work portrays many aspects of Scottish history, which was one of Andrew’s passions.

His website has many more examples of his art, with short explanations to accompany them.

He grew up in Prestonpans and knew the local legend of the town’s beginnings; that it was founded by a Viking traveller named Althamer, who was shipwrecked with his crew on its rocky shore after a ferocious storm about a thousand years ago in the 11th century.

As Andrew himself wrote: “Stories from this period are very difficult to verify, but the legend persists to this day… the image shows Althamer’s ship passing Bass Rock as the sun sets on the evening before their hard landing on Scotland’s shores.”

But although this is a legend and not history, we do know that there was Viking activity around East Lothian’s shores in the 10th century. For example, it is recorded that the Norse king of Dublin, Olaf Guthfrithson, raided Tyninghame in AD941 and died soon afterwards.

And perhaps he lies buried there. In 2005, the farmer at Auldhame, Mr Dale, ploughed up bones. An archaeological dig took place and an Anglo Saxon monastery was revealed. A male skeleton was discovered buried there with items that identify him as being a high-ranking Norse warrior.

It can’t be said for sure the skeleton was the remains of King Olaf himself. But it’s a fascinating possibility.

The thing is, we have tiny historical glimpses of this time, with archaeology sometimes adding to our knowledge; while also sometimes adding to the intrigue.

To this, we can add the stories, told down the generations, at the firesides of the common folk. These stories often had their origin in an account of someone’s experience, or a memory of an event, which then evolved to become part of folklore and legend.

Since the story of Althamer’s arrival was set in a time of extensive Norse and Danish settlement, the idea of Prestonpans being founded by a shipwrecked Viking is not entirely fanciful. There was, after all, a Viking settlement a few miles down the coast at Luffness, by Aberlady Bay.

So Andrew’s image of Althamer and his crew sailing to their fate along the East Lothian coast is now part of the telling of this legend.

The story lit my imagination and interest in history when I was a youngster growing up in Prestonpans. It still does.

I’ve often stood on its shore in a storm to watch the waves crash against the rocks in a rage, and see in my mind’s eye the Viking longboat being smashed.

There is so much in this picture for you to discover, and it speaks more words than I can write.

So I will leave it with you.

It is produced here with thanks from Vicky Hillhouse, who gave her permission to use it on this page.

But she has also kindly given permission for its use by local schoolchildren, who are now the younger custodians of the legend.