Inchinnan Description of stone
Event ID 1018933
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018933
Inchinnan 3 (St Conval), Renfrewshire, recumbent cross-slab or shrine cover
Measurements: L 1.60m, W 0.58m, D 0.25m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NS 4904 6803
Present location: in railed shelter outside Inchinnan New Parish Church.
Evidence for discovery: recorded by Stuart in the mid nineteenth century lying in the graveyard. A new church was built in 1900, and the slab was placed on raised plinths outside the church. It was taken to the New Parish Church when the old church was demolished in 1965 and displayed on a brick plinth in a shelter outside the church.
Present condition: the once deep relief carving on the slab is severely weathered and the details are blurred. The slab is largely intact apart from edge-damage especially along the basal edges.
Description
This slab is carved in relief on the upper face A and on all four narrow faces, B, D, E and F. The underside, face C, is plain. There is a semi-circular projection at each corner and broad flatband mouldings along the edges which are plain except for the moulding at the head, which is carved with two twisted cords, and that at the foot, which bears a coiled serpent. There are traces of carving on the tops of the projections. Face A is carved with a central relief cross with rounded armpits, with a moulding below the arms and a wide plain band below the moulding. A single twist separates the ends of the arms from the border, and above the side-arms on either side an animal faces the cross. Two larger animals confront one another above the cross. Below the central plain band there is an interlace knot flanking the base of the cross-shaft. Below the shaft another pair of large confronted animals, and below the another pair with gaping jaws on either side of a central figure.
Face B has a single long panel with animals progressing to the right or head-end of the monument, with a double knot at the left-hand end. The five quadrupeds are set close together, one with its head turned to look back and the central animal facing outwards. The panel on face D contains six animals moving towards the head, with two facing back and one facing outwards. There is a long knot on the wider end, face E, and a single twist on face F at the foot.
Date: late ninth to eleventh century.
References: Stuart 1867, pl 76; ECMS pt 3, 458-9; Radford 1967, 182-3.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017
