Description of stone
Event ID 1008892
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1008892
Ulbster (St Martin), Caithness, Pictish cross-slab
Measurements: H 1.52m, W 0.91m, D 0.20m
Stone type: Old Red Sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 3356 4185
Present location: Caithness Horizons, Thurso.
Evidence for discovery: Stuart records a tradition that the stone was dug up in the churchyard of St Martin’s Chapel at Ulbster in 1770, set upright and later re-used as a graveslab (1856: 14). In the 19th century it was moved to Thurso castle and set upright on an artificial mound in the grounds (Allen & Anderson 1903: pt 3, 33-5). In the first half of the 20th century it was moved to Thurso Heritage Museum (now Caithness Horizons; ARC 64).
Present condition: worn.
Description
Face A: an equal-armed cross on a narrow shaft and a rectangular base extends across almost the entire face. The cross is filled with interlace, geometric in the centre of the cross-head and curvilinear elsewhere. The terminal panels of the arms contain designs based on four triquetra knots. Two cattle and another animal with paws occupy the spaces above the arms of the cross. A pair of bear-like animals flanks the lower arm of the cross, while below them on the right are a flower symbol, a horse and a sleeping foal, and on the left two men crouched on either side of a cauldron and a tightly coiled serpent. An inscription in Gothic letters, The Ulbster Stone, was carved across the upper arm of the cross, probably in the 19th century.
Face C: an equal-armed cross filled with interlace based on four triquetra knots, flanked closely by eight symbols, some of which touch or even encroach upon the cross. They are the crescent and V-rod, the Pictish beast, the salmon, the lion, the double disc, the double crescent, the step and the S-dragon.
Date: ninth century.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
