Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016599
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016599
This cross has recently been moved from Barochan and, after much needed conservation, it has been reerected in the shelter of Paisley Abbey. The stone has had a chequered history, having been moved on at least one previous occasion, and serves as a timely reminder of the portability of even comparatively large monuments. It was first recorded standing a little to the south of Mill ofBarochan (NS 404698) from whence it was removed in the late 19th century to the top of a prominent knoll opposite Corsliehill (NS 405690).
It is an erect standing cross of pale, probably local, sandstone which rises to a height of 3.4m, the lower 0.9m of which would normally be buried. The decoration is badly weathered and the stone as a whole has deteriorated much in recent times, but viewed from a distance it is not difficult to imagine it in its former glory. Interlace fonns the principal decorative motif with, on the front and rear faces, panels of human and animal sculpture. The front panel is divided into three zones: a mounted warrior carrying a spear confronting a man holding a drinking horn, at the top; a small human figure flanked by two men, one of whom holds an axe, at the centre; and, at the bottom, a pair of beasts facing one another (the latter are similar to a pair of animals on the side of the first stone described at Inchinnan, no. 66). On the rear there are two panels, with the bottom half of the upper and the top half of the lower bearing human figures. The upper four figures wear cloaks, and those in the lower panel carry spears and are blowing horns. The cross cannot be dated accurately but it is probably early in the Strathclyde series of sculptured stones and may be as early as the 8th century.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
