Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016950
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016950
These two slabs share the distinction of illustrating the two main strands of Pictish decorative layout on opposing faces-one side of each bearing only symbols, the other side a cross with carved motifs in a wide range of iconography including symbols. The stone in the manse garden is far superior in artistic quality, at least to a modem eye, to the other, and it is interesting that they should both bear the serpent and the triple disc symbols.
One side of the slab in the garden bears three Pictish symbols on its rough and irregular surface: a serpent, a fish and a mirror. The sides and top have been shaped so that the slab tapers towards a pedimented head, 2.7 m high, but there is no decoration on the sides. The other face is carved with a cross in relief, entirely infilled with various interlaced designs. An odd feature of this cross is the presence of an incomplete incised ring linking the arms on all but the lower right quadrant, where the muzzle of the dog's head lies in the way, as if the addition of the ring had been a unsuccessful afterthought. Beneath the dog is a triple disc symbol, itself overlapping the dog. On the other side of the cross-shaft, two bearded men confront each other with axes, while above them is a cauldron with two pairs of legs sticking up. This may be part of a Pictish folktale, or it may be linked with the historically documented Pictish tradition of execution by drowning. Flanking the top of the cross are an animal and a centaur brandishing axes, and traces of animal heads may just be seen above the top of the cross.
Within the vestibule of the church, on a window ledge, is a fragment of another cross-slab, showing the interlace-filled base of the cross-shaft and the lower parts of a man and an animal.
The rough face of the slab on Hunters Hill bears an animal, a serpent and a mirror. The other side is sculpted in relief with an interlace-filled cross within a key-pattern frame. The background carvings include a winged figure, a beast-headed figure with an axe, several animals, a triple disc symbol and a flower symbol.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
