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Description of stone
Event ID 1011785
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1011785
Glamis 2, Glamis Manse (St Fergus), Angus, Pictish cross-slab
Measurements: H 2.67m +, W 1.68>1.42m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 3858 4686
Present location: in situ in the front garden of the manse beside the church.
Evidence for discovery: first recorded in the manse garden by Chalmers in the 1840s. The garden is likely once to have been part of the churchyard.
Present condition: some erosion, especially on the uppermost part.
Description
The top of this tapering slab has been dressed into a rough triangular pediment. Face A is carved in a mixture of relief and incision. Filling almost face A is a cross carved in relief and outlined with a roll moulding, with cusped arms and a central roundel. A ring linking the cusps is lightly incised. The lower arm is separated from the shaft only by the difference in their interlace fillings. Above the upper arm and filling the apex of the pedimented top of the slab are traces of two animals. A quadruped with tail curled along its back and bird-like feet faces the upper arm of the cross on the left, while on the right there is a centaur holding aloft an axe in each hand, with its upper body turned to face outwards. Alongside the lower arm and shaft of the cross on the left are two motifs: a cauldron hanging from a stand with two pairs of human legs protruding from the cauldron, above two men in tunics menacing one another with axes in their right hands. To the right an exquisite dog’s head symbol nuzzles the cusp of the lower arm of the cross, a double scroll indicating the muscle below the ear. It appears to be balanced upon a triple disc or cauldron symbol. Incised one above the other on the rough surface of face C are a serpent, a salmon and a mirror symbol with double-disc handle.
Date range: seventh century.
Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 221-2, no 2; Fraser 2008, no 61.1.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
