Drainie 8 Description of stone
Event ID 1036640
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1036640
Drainie 8, Kinneddar, Moray, cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.25m, W 0.16m, W 0.08m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NJ c 223 696
Present location: Elgin Museum (1855.1.6)
Evidence for discovery: found in or prior to 1855; according to Stuart (1856, 40), ‘most of
the other fragments [ ie nos 2-13] were found in old dykes about the Manse, and a few were dug up in the old churchyard’. The old manse stood close to the graveyard and the site of Kinneddar old parish church and early medieval foundation, then located beside a sea loch.
Present condition: one intact (right-hand) edge survives and the top edge fits beneath Drainie 3. The carving is weathered.
Description
This fragment is carved in relief on both broad faces, and it forms part of the same cross-slab as Drainie 3, thus increasing the surviving length of slab to 0.41m. Face A shows that the background to the cross is bordered by a plain moulding and that the shaft sits on a basal incised line. Face C depicts a warrior facing right, grasping a hefty spear in his left hand and wearing a shield with a central boss slung on his right side.
Date range: ninth or tenth century.
Primary references: Stuart 1856, pl 130; ECMS pt 3, 145-6.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018
