Breck of Hillwell Description of stone
Date 28 September 2016
Event ID 1014289
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1014289
Breck of Hillwell, Shetland, Pictish symbol stone
Measurements: H 1.0m, W 0.23 < 0.33m
Stone type: Old Red Sandstone
Place of discovery: HU 372 146
Present location: Shetland Museum, Lerwick (A59-1997).
Evidence for discovery: found in 1997 re-used as part of the cover of a field drain.
Present condition: worn and truncated with severe flaking.
Description
Face A of this long and tapering rectangular slab is incised with two Pictish symbols: a crescent above a rectangle. The symbols are close to the base of the stone as it survives, but there has been truncation of the lower edge, and flaking of the surface has removed much of the crescent and most of the rectangle. The crescent shows traces of a hatched double spiral motif and a hatched arc motif close to the left-hand tip of the crescent. There is definitely no V-rod associated with the crescent. The rectangle appears to have been divided into two equal parts horizontally, and there are traces of chevrons in the upper part and a curvilinear motif in the lower,
Date: seventh century.
References: Fraser 2008: no 194; Scott & Ritchie 2009: no 2.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
