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Description of stone
Event ID 1010115
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1010115
Farr, Sutherland, cross-slab
Measurements: H 2.29m, W 0.62m, D 0.23m
Stone type: blue schistose slate
Place of discovery: NC 7142 6225
Present location: in situ in graveyard at east end of church (now Strathnaver Museum), facing east.
Evidence for discovery: recorded by Stuart around 1850.
Present condition: some wear but mostly good.
Description
This sophisticated monument bears carving on one broad face only. The slab has been carefully dressed to a rectangle with a plain flat-topped pediment with sloping concave sides. Face A is heavily carved in relief within a plain border, the whole dominated by a ringed cross on a D-shaped pedestal. The ornamentation is dense and elaborate but lightened by plain spaces between the arms of the cross and by panels on either side of the shaft containing airy spiralwork. At the top is a panel of diagonal key pattern within a plain and narrow roll moulding. The cross fills the width of the slab and its upper arm touches the top panel. It has rectangular terminals and widely rounded armpits, and a central raised boss carved with a fat triple spiral. Small triple spirals link the boss with the squares of key pattern in the terminals of the upper and side arms. The squares of key pattern can also be read as crosses. The lower arm, shaft and ring are filled with interlace. The basal pedestal has a border of interlace within which is a D-shaped panel enclosed by a narrow roll moulding and containing two swan-like birds, their necks entwined. The cords of the spiralwork on either side of the shaft become space-filling tight interlace above and below, and similar interlace fills the spaces beside the upper ring of the cross. Below the base of the cross is a densely packed panel of key pattern. The basal portion of the slab is hidden below ground.
Date: ninth or tenth century.
References: Stuart 1856, pl 35; ECMS pt 3, 53-4.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
