Earls Bu Description of stone
Event ID 1017192
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017192
Earl’s Bu 4, Orphir, Orkney, runic inscription fragment
Measurements: L 0.26m, W 0.12m, H 0.07m
Stone type: flagstone
Place of discovery: HY 3349 0442
Present location: The Orkney Museum, Kirkwall (OM 690).
Evidence for discovery: found in 1953 during demolition of St Nicholas Church, reused as a building stone. It was subsequently given to Tankerness House Museum in Kirkwall (now the Orkney Museum).
Present condition: broken at one end.
Description
Runes are firmly incised along the narrow face of the fragment and mention a church, though the rest of the inscription is hard to interpret (see Barnes & Page).
Date: possibly twelfth century.
References: Barnes & Page 2006, OR 10, 181-7.
Compiled by A Ritchiie 2017
