Description of stone
Event ID 1009747
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1009747
Reay 2 (St Colman), Caithness, cross-slab/squared pillar-stone
Measurements: H 0.90m, W 0.23m, D 0.23m
Stone type: reddish sandstone
Place of discovery: NC 9673 6482
Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (X.IB 267)
Evidence for discovery: found in 1947 built into the S wall of Reay parish church.
Present condition: worn and damaged, truncated at base, with a dowel hole cut into face C.
Description
This slab is unusual for a cross-slab in its dimensions, the width and depth being equal. The top of the slab has secondary chiselling. Carved in low relief, face A bears a cross with a square expansion at the top, the whole outlined by a narrow roll moulding and filled with diagonal key patter, face B is carved with a plain oval at the top, with below a hound ‘snapping at the stag round the corner’ (Stevenson 1950), below again a horned animal possibly with a bell round its neck, below which is a seated or kneeling cow, all three facing right. The horned animal and the cow have crudely incised spiral joints. Below the cow is a horse trotting to the left. Face C is carved with, at the top, an antlered stag facing right, above a panel of single-strand interlace framed by a flat band moulding. Face D bears three well-executed running spirals and another motif has been chiselled away at the top.
Date range: eighth century.
References: Stevenson 1950; Blackie & Macaulay 1998: no 21.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
