Lunnasting Description of stone
Event ID 1014604
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1014604
Lunnasting, Shetland, ogham-inscribed fragment
Measurements: H 1.12m, W 0.33m tapering to 0.20m, D 0.04m
Stone type: flagstone
Place of discovery:
Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (IB.113).
Evidence for discovery: found about 1.5m down in a peat bog in the parish of Lunnasting in 1876 and taken to a nearby cottage. It was presented to the museum that same year.
Present condition: broken at the narrow end.
Description
An undressed tapering slab, one broad face is incised with a vertical inscription in bind ogham with one end missing and an equal armed cross. One arm of the cross has an expansion formed of two lines at an angle, perhaps to indicate the foot of the cross. If this is so the cross is upside down in relation to the inscription and may have been added later. The inscription includes the personal name, Nechtan.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
References: Goudie 1878, 24; ECMS pt 3, 17-18; Forsyth 1996, 402-19; Scott & Ritchie 2009, no 52.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016