Desk Based Assessment
Date 1965
Event ID 665015
Category Recording
Type Desk Based Assessment
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/665015
NH95NE 3 98425 57665 (removed from NH 990 584)
(NH 9842 5766) Sculptured Stone (NR)
called Rodney's Stone (NAT)
OS 6" map, 1906.
A Class II upright cross-slab of grey sandstone was found in 1781 during excavations for foundations for Dyke Church, which was constructed behind its pre-Reformation predecessor. The stone must have been in the graveyard of the old church (NH 990 584).
The stone was erected in Dyke village in commemoration of Rodney's victory over the Count de Grasse (Battle of the Saints - 1782) from which it received the name 'Rodney's Cross.' It was removed to the Park of Brodie a few years before 1842. (J G Callander has noted in the National Museum copy of Allen and Anderson 1903 "this stone was dug up by a gravedigger...locally known as Rotteny..and it was from this it got its name, not from Rodney's victory - authority of the late Rev. John MacEwan, minister of Dyke.)
The stone, erected on a modern base and held upright by wrought iron struts, is rectangular in shape, 6'4" high by 3'5" wide at the bottom and 3'2" wide at the top. It is sculptured in relief, with Ogham inscriptions down each of the four angles.
The front bears a cross with interlacing, and the back bears symbols including fish monsters, the elephant, double disc and z-rod.
Information from OS.
New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845 (M Aitken); Name Book 1870; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903.
