St Vigeans 8 Description of stone

Event ID 1028453

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1028453

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

St Vigeans 8 (St Vigianus), Angus, recumbent grave-cover

Measurements: L 1.66m, W 0.45m, D 0.29m

Stone type: grey sandstone

Place of discovery: NO c 6384 4289

Present location: in St Vigeans Museum (HES).

Evidence for discovery: found in the first half of the nineteenth century in re-use in a wall of the church, though the precise location is uncertain. It was removed from the wall and taken into St Vigeans Museum in 1960.

Present condition: almost the complete length has survived, but there is considerable damage to the head and foot of the stone, as well as along the edges and base, and the carving is worn.

Description

Face A is carved in relief, whereas the only other intact face, D, is carved in incision, but both display a certain restraint and simplicity of style. Face A appears to had a wide border with interlace between roll mouldings, a sunken main panel with a damaged serpent-like creature with a pair of large fins and traces of a broad head, and a deep slot for an upright component or a relic at one end.

Face D is divided by vertical lines into five panels of unequal widths. From left to right, the panels contain a stag and a doe trotting to the left, with the doe looking back over her shoulder at the fawn in the next panel and perhaps beyond to the sturdy hound in the third panel. The fourth panel is blank, but the fifth panel is graced by a more elaborate carving of a bird with plumed head held high and plaited tail feathers.

Date range: ninth or tenth century.

Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 269; Geddes 2017, no VIG008.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017