Scanned image of a drawing of a carved stone with two designs and ogam, and an accompanying hand-written text entitled: 'Ogams. NEHTET RI. Nehtet King or Ruler' which refers to the "Bressay (Shetland ...

Description Scanned image of a drawing of a carved stone with two designs and ogam, and an accompanying hand-written text entitled: 'Ogams. NEHTET RI. Nehtet King or Ruler' which refers to the "Bressay (Shetland) Stone". This text continues onto the reverse side of the card [PPD 47B]. The stone depicted is not the famous carved stone from Bressay, Shetland; and therefore may well be one from Caithness.

Date c. 1895 to 1920

Collection Papers of John Nicolson, antiquarian, Keiss, Caithness, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 876299

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Drawing of Pictish stone from Ackergill Links, Caithness, Highland Ackergill Links is located to the south of Sinclair's Bay on the north-east coast of Caithness. John Nicolson (1843-1934), a local artist, discovered a carved Pictish stone on the links in 1896. The stone had, apparently, been standing upright within the northern end of a mound which was later excavated and found to contain another symbol stone fragment. This drawing by Nicolson shows the decoration carved on one side of the stone, comprising a rectangular symbol which may represent a bone comb case and, above it, a salmon. Both are commonly found on Pictish symbol stones. To the left is an Ogham inscription, transliterated as NEHTETRI. 'Nehtet' is translated as 'king' or 'ruler'. Ogham appears to have originated in Ireland and may have been introduced to northern Scotland by Early Christian missionaries. The pencil drawing has notes written by Nicolson discussing the relationship of the Ackergill symbol stone to another well-known inscribed stone from Bressay, Shetland. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/876299

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap