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Kirriemuir 1 Description of stone
Event ID 1037104
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1037104
Kirriemuir 1 (St Mary), Angus, Pictish cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.59m, W 0.46m, D 0.08m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 3895 5448
Present location: Meffan Museum and Gallery, Forfar
Evidence for discovery: found re-used in the foundations of the old parish church when it was demolished in 1787 and taken to the new cemetery.
Present condition: damaged top and bottom and worn.
Description
This cross-slab appears to have had a rounded top and is carved in relief on both broad faces, within plain flat-band edge mouldings. Face A bears a cross with squared arms and a square centre to the head, entirely outlined by roll moulding. It is filled with continuous interlace, which forms pairs of Stafford knots in the arms and shaft. Two figures in profile are set on either side of the upper arm, facing the cross, both wearing wide robes, and the one on the right with an animal head. Either side of the shaft are frontal figures, each holding a book.
Face C is divided into two panels, the upper of which contains two figures in profile facing one another and holding jointly a circular object, with a frontal figure on their right. In the lower panel a cleric sits in a chair with large zoomorphic terminals to the back panel, with a mirror and comb symbol on the left and perhaps a loom on the right.
Date range: eighth or ninth century.
Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 226-7; RCAHMS 2003; Fraser 2008, no 65.1.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018.
