Dunrobin, Dairy Park Description of stone
Event ID 1010114
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1010114
Dunrobin, Dairy Park, Sutherland, Pictish symbol stone
Measurements: H 1.20m, W 1.50m, D 0.15m
Stone type: pink sandstone
Place of discovery: NC 8470 0039
Present location: Dunrobin Museum (ARC 572), Dunrobin Castle.
Evidence for discovery: the slab was uncovered during ploughing in 1977, and subsequent excavation showed that it overlay a rectangular platform cairn.
Present condition: good, but the lower left-hand side of the slab is broken, and there is an area of wear which includes the central part of the double crescent and the head of the serpent. There are also many small solution holes and they, together with the wear, suggest that the stone lay face up, collecting rainwater, for many years before it became buried.
Description
The slab bears four Pictish symbols executed by fine pecking: at the top a double crescent, above a serpent and Z-rod, above a mirror with a double-sided comb close beside it on the left. Both the double crescent and the serpent are elaborately ornamented.
Date: seventh century
References: Close-Brooks 1980; Fraser 2008, no 139.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
