Meigle 9 Description of stone
Date 11 July 2018
Event ID 1039934
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1039934
Meigle 9, Perthshire, recumbent gravestone
Measurements: L H 0.31m to 0.23m, L 1.80m, W 0.33m to 0.20m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 2872 4459
Present location: Meigle Museum.
Evidence for discovery: drawn by Pennant in 1772 in the churchyard.
Present condition: very worn.
Description
The presence of a bar socket (L 0.19m, W 0.08m, D 0.06m) for an upright at the wider end of the slab suggests that this is the head of the monument. The foot of the monument is now higher than the head, but the upper surface, face A, has been much reduced by wear or trimming, possibly for re-use as a graveslab. Pennant’s illustration shows a sunken panel within an ornamented border in the top of the stone. Both end panels, faces C and E, are plain, but the long sides, faces B and D, are carved in relief.
Face B is bordered and divided into six panels by roll mouldings. The panels are of different sizes and contain, from the left, a quadruped walking to the right, a seated human figure facing left whose legs are entwined with those of a contorted stork-like bird, another quadruped facing right with tail curling up over its back, a panel of spiral work, a very worn panel with figures and finally a plain panel with possible. Long face D is bordered and divided into five panels by roll mouldings. From the left, after a plain panel, the other panels display a winged griffin facing left with a bird hanging from its mouth, a panel with a circle of interlace, a quadruped facing left with an elongated body entwined round itself forming a knot and spiral joints, and two confronted quadrupeds whose jaws are grasping one another (or possibly the head of the left-hand animal is inside the jaws of the other). Their elongated tails form clouds of interlace above their backs, and their bodies are outlined by a fine internal line.
Date: tenth century.
References: Pennant 1776, vol 2, pl 17; RCAHMS 1994, 100, B.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018.