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Formaston Description of stone
Event ID 1018468
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018468
Formaston 1 (St Adomnan), Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Pictish cross-slab with ogham inscription
Measurements: H 1.12m, W 0.43m, D 0.12m
Stone type: granite
Place of discovery: NJ 5412 0014
Present location: Victory Hall, Aboyne (I 6904)
Evidence for discovery: found lying in the kirkyard at Formaston before 1874 and moved to the grounds of Aboyne Castle by 1883. It was taken to Inverurie Museum in 1974 and thence to the Victory Hall, Aboyne.
Present condition: broken but the carving is in good condition.
Description
The original slab clearly tapered quite steeply, widening upwards towards the terminals of the side-arms of the cross, and the shape of the top is unknown but is likely to have tapered inwards towards the upper terminal. Only the lower right-hand portion of the slab survives and is carved in deep false relief and incision on one broad face. The cross is outlined by a roll moulding and has a large closed armpit. The surviving terminals of the shaft and side-arm link by means of scrolls to the roll moulding along the edge of the slab. The shaft is filled with interlace consisting of three vertical rows of double knots, with a central ring-knot. Flanking the shaft on the right is incised a mirror symbol, and a two-line ogham inscription which may have been added somewhat later. The outer line of ogham runs along the roll moulding on the edge of the slab. The oghams are in Irish script and language and include the Pictish names Nehht and Talorc.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
References: Forsyth 1996, 261-87; Fraser 2008, no 22.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2017
