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Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016487

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016487

Named from the legend of the daughter of the laird of Balquhain who died during her elopement, this is a cool, pink slab of granite, bearing on one face, in low relief, a most elaborate and confident rin gheaded cross and on the other four bold symbols, carved in high relief. Above the cross on the west face two fish monsters,surround a man with arms outstretched (a Calvary scene?). Below the cross a great roundel with spiral work surrounded by interlace, key-pattern and knotwork can still be discerned. The sides of the slab have also been carefully decorated. The east face has been divided into four panels, bearin g a centaut (?), a notched rectangle (?based on a gate tower) and Z-rod, a Pictish beast and a mirror and double-sided comb. These have all been carved with a 'massive simplicity' that was an elegant and successful response to the problem of executing relief sculpture in granite.

The cross, the treatment of the symbols and their framing in separate panels on the back of the stone all suggest that this was one of the last symbol stones to be carved in Grampian. It is certainly one of the finest.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).

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