Altyre Description of stone
Event ID 1036351
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1036351
Altyre, Moray, ogham-inscribed cross-slab
Measurements: H 3.30m above ground, W 0.86m, D 0.18m
Stone type: grey sandstone
Place of discovery: NJ c 141 641
Present location: within an enclosure in a field to the west of the site of the old kirk of Altyre at NJ 0391 5537.
Evidence for discovery: recorded as standing on rising ground in a field belonging to Longhillock Farm and moved around 1800 to a field north of Altyre House.
Present condition: severely weathered and there is considerable edge damage.
Description
A very tall and slender slab, this formerly bore a plain cross with a small head and very long shaft carved in relief on both broad faces, but the cross-head on face C has eroded away, leaving only the shaft. At the base of the shaft are traces of a stepped base.
Face A is bordered by an incised line to give the impression of a moulding, but the weathering of face C makes it impossible to tell whether this side also had a border. The cross on face A has stepped armpits, hammer-head side-arms and a square or rectangular upper arm, which survives only partially. The shaft is bordered by an incised line. Running up face D is a long ogham inscription with the letters arranged on an incised stem-line, but its weathered state makes interpretation difficult, indeed even its language, whether Irish or Pictish, is uncertain.
Date: late eighth or ninth century
References: Calder & Jackson 1957; Forsyth 1996, 23-40; Bennett 1999, 18-20.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018
