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St Ninians Isle Description of stone
Event ID 1015194
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1015194
St Ninian’s Isle 6, Shetland, shrine post
Measurements: H 0.52m +, W 0.20m, D 0.12m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: HU 3685 2090
Present location: Shetland Museum, Lerwick (ARC 67120)
Evidence for discovery: found during excavation in 1957, in a secondary context set upright in the north-east corner of the rectangular structure dubbed the ‘Founder’s Tomb’.
Present condition: very worn and battered and broken at the base.
Description
This post has four decorated faces, one of which is also grooved, and one other grooved face. The grooves are about 0.40m long. Within flatband borders created by pecked lines the ornament consists on face A of a double cross carved in false relief with a pellet between the arms of the upper cross and on the shaft of the lower, on face C (above the groove) of an inurned pair of spirals and on face D of a panel of faint interlace. The top of the post, face E, bears an oblong boss, now plain.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
References: Thomas 1973, no 5; Scott & Ritchie 2009, no 44.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
