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Inchcolm Description of stone
Event ID 1025207
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1025207
Inchcolm 2, Fife, hogback monument
Measurements: H 0.36m to 0.42m, L 1.62m, W 0.20m to 0.30m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NT 18883 82609
Present location: in HES Visitor Centre at the harbour on Inchcolm.
Evidence for discovery: recorded in the sixteenth century on a knoll near Inchcolm Abbey, at which time it was associated with a standing cross. It remained in situ, lying north-south, until 1993 when it was moved into the Abbey.
Present condition: very weathered.
Description
Carved in relief, the ridge has a distinct convex curve and may have been ornamented, and there are end-beasts with muzzles and ears. The west side has four rows of tegulae above a panel with a central cross with expanded arms, flanked on the left by two pilasters and on the right by three, the pilasters ornamented with interlace (best seen in the RCAHMS superb photographs taken in 2014). The east side has five rows of tegulae above a panel with a central frontal figure grasping a staff or spear in each hand, flanked on the right by one double and one single pilaster with interlace ornament. To the left of the figure the carving is much defaced.
Date: mid tenth century.
References: Stuart 1956, pl 125; Simpson 1856, 495-7; ECMS pt 3, 366-7; Lang 1974, 227.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017
