* The stories below and the characters are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons and events is purely coincidental.
It was the summer of 1932. Archaeologist Jonathan Gates was staying in one of the houses in Balmerino while he was doing his research of the Abbey. One night he was rather excited about the things he had discovered in the ruins during the day and he simply couldn't fall asleep. He knew he was getting closer to revealing the secret believed to be hidden here by the monks of the abbey centuries ago. He got out of bed and decided to go out and wander back to the ruin. It was an unusually warm night, the sky was clear and the full moon was just about to pass the way of Polaris. Still busy with his thoughts, he didn't realize when he had entered the Abbey's church. His eyes wandered on the ruin and suddenly something caught his attention. In the moonlight a faintly visible cross with an inscription on it appeared on the opposite wall. Strange he hadn't seen it before despite having inspected every inch of it already. He quickly wrote down the signs on a piece of paper as it seemed there were no carvings on the stone. A moment later the inscription mysteriously faded and disappeared as if it had never been there. Jonathan spent years trying to decipher the inscription but he was sure that there must have been more to it and what he had found was only part of the mystery.
* * *
One evening Sarah Lawson, a Balmerino resident, was walking her dog along their usual route, a wee path through the wooded area along the coast of the Tay. The sun was setting down when she decided to turn round and walk back to her house before it gets too dark. In that moment she realized she doesn't see her pet anywhere around. And he would never go astray. She called his name and started to get a bit worried when she didn't hear or see him coming. As she left the path to search for him she tripped on something in the leaf-covered forest ground and bruised her arms as she fell. She got up just to find the object she tripped on was actually a pretty big rectangular stone column. What was more curious and interesting was the fact there were two carvings on both ends of the stone. Little she knew then that her discovery would renew the interest in the almost forgotten secret of the monks.
Can you unravel the mystery?
The final location is N 56° ??.??? W 003° 00.???
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