Wester Denoon 1 Description of stone
Event ID 1036346
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1036346
Wester Denoon 1, Angus, Pictish cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.42m, W 0.35m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 3502 4339
Present location: Meffan Institute, Forfar
Evidence for discovery: found during ploughing in 1994 in a field close to the site of a medieval chapel.
Present condition: broken and damaged.
Description
The central portion of a cross-slab, this fragment is carved in relief on both broad faces within a plain flat-band moulding. Face A bears a cross outlined by a roll moulding and filled with a continuous loose interlace, the cords of which have a median incised line. The terminals are rectangular (the top arm is missing) and the armpits are rounded. Flanking the shaft are narrow vertical panels of key pattern.
Face C bears a frontal figure, the upper part of whose head is missing. The figure wears a tunic with an interlace-decorated hem and pleated shoulder cape, and a very distinctive large annular brooch is placed centrally beneath the cape, with its pin horizontal. On the left of the figure are a mirror and a double-sided comb, while on the right is a single interlaced cord, which may originally have had a zoomorphic head but that area is obscured by surface damage.
Date range: ninth century.
Primary references: RCAHMS 2003; Fraser 2008, no 71.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018
