Kirkmadrine Description of stone
Event ID 1084098
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1084098
Kirkmadrine 1, Wigtownshire, inscribed cross-slab
Measurements: H 2.01m +, W 0.40m expanding at the base to 0.66m, D 0.18m
Stone type: schist
Place of discovery: NX 08014 48389
Evidence for discovery: first recorded around 1810 in the old churchyard, recognised in 1860 in re-use as a gatepost at the entrance to the nineteenth-century graveyard enclosure, included in the first Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882 and taken into state guardianship in 1887. It was moved into a new porch outside the west end of the church when the ruins were restored in 1889-90. The porch was refurbished and the stone collection redisplayed in 2013-15.
Present location: at Kirkmadrine church.
Present condition: worn, and damaged at the top.
Description:
This pillar-stone bears an encircled chi-rho cross on both broad faces. On face A the arms of the cross are sunken and have expanded and dished terminals, with a deeper circular roundel at the centre. Above the cross are incised the letters A E, all that survives of the original inscription A ET W for ‘alpha and omega’. Below the cross are incised six lines of Latin, a memorial to two or possibly three priests. On face C there is a very similar chi-rho cross, except that there is no central roundel.
Date: sixth century.
References: Mitchell 1872; Stuart 1867, pl 71; ECMS pt 3, 494-5; Craig 1992, vol 3, 117-26, vol 4, pl 130.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019.
