Skaill Description of stone
Event ID 1017227
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017227
Skaill 2 (St Mary), Deerness, Orkney, cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.33m, W 0.32m, D 0.05m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: HY 5881 0651
Present location: The Orkney Museum, Kirkwall (OM 79.2)
Evidence for discovery: found face down re-used in a paved path leading to primary Norse house 1 on Site 2, during excavations in 1979. It is likely to have come from the nearby churchyard.
Present condition: broken and worn.
Description
The fragment belongs to the lower part of a slightly tapering slab, on which is incised the shaft of a cross set on a pedestal base. The cross is indicated by a single line, and there survives the tip of a loop which is likely to be hanging from the right-hand arm.
Date: seventh century.
References: Buteux 1997, 108, 131, no 3001; Scott & Ritchie 2014, no 26.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2017
