Fyvie Description of stone
Event ID 1021983
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1021983
Fyvie 3, Aberdeenshire, possible cross-shaft fragment
Measurements: H 1.52m, W 0.41m, D 0.28m
Stone type: pink granite
Place of discovery: NJ 7684 3777
Present location: built into the east gable of the chancel of Fyvie church, under the window.
Evidence for discovery: it was recognised by the minister in the late nineteenth century, re-used as the lintel over a door at the west end of the 1803 church. He had it removed and clamped side-on to the exterior wall close to no 2, probably the east gable. It was then incorporated into the east gable of the new chancel built in 1903, beneath a window.
Present condition: trimmed for re-use as a lintel, edges damaged and carving weathered.
Description
The width of this slab suggests that it may have been part of a free-standing cross rather than one of the narrow faces of a large cross-slab. The other three faces are apparently uncarved but may have been trimmed. What survives shows two panels of ornament carved in relief: the upper panel has a plain flatband frame, within which is an irregular key pattern, while the lower panel shows a triangular interlace pattern with a central pit in each of the four triangular loops.
Date: ninth or tenth century.
References: ECMS pt 3, 194-6.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017
