Balluderon Description of stone
Event ID 1033665
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1033665
Balluderon, St Martin’s Stone, Angus, Pictish cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 2.0m, W 0.68m, D 0.17m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 3748 3758
Present location: in situ within a railed enclosure in a field.
Evidence for discovery: first recorded around 1832.
Present condition: weathered and missing its top portion.
Description
This is the lower part of a cross-slab, which is carved in relief with a flat-band edge and the base of a cross outlined by a roll moulding. The base contains a rider and horse facing left: the horse is trotting and its right foreleg extends into the frame moulding. The rider is sitting on a saddle cloth, beneath the cross-base on the right is another horse and rider in similar pose, and here the rider is clearly wearing a small circular shield. In front of him is a Pictish beast symbol, below which is a serpent and Z-rod symbol.
Date range: eighth or ninth century.
Primary references: Skene 1832, 15; ECMS pt 3, 215-16; Fraser 2008, no 55.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018
