Abdie Description of stone
Event ID 1037099
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1037099
Abdie (Lindores stone), Fife, Pictish symbol stone
Measurements: H 1.67m, W 0.55m, D 0.37m
Stone type: greenstone
Place of discovery: NO 2520 1698
Present location: in the Old Mort House at Abdie Churchyard (NO 2595 1633).
Evidence for discovery: first recorded around 1830 lying fallen on Kaim Hill above Lindores village (Skene). Sometime in the next two decades it was built into a garden wall in the village (Stuart), and in 1970 it was taken to Abdie.
Present condition: good
Description
This large natural block of stone is carved on two faces with Pictish symbols and later designs. On the broad face A there is incised a triple disc symbol above an ornate crescent and V-rod, apparently superimposed on an earlier rectangle. On face B there is a large incised mirror symbol with and double-disc type of handle. In later times, the straight line across the triple disc has been used as the top of an incised rectangular sundial, and later still an Ordnance Survey bench mark has been carved within the crescent symbol.
Date: seventh century.
References: Skene 1832, 17; Stuart 1856, 32; ECMS pt 3, 343-4; Ritchie & Ritchie 1982; Fraser 2008, no 78.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2016
