Note
Date 1946
Event ID 1125086
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1125086
Sculptured Stone from Cullingsburgh. This stone (Figs. 476 and 477), popularly known as the Bressay Stone and believed to have been originally found near the ruins of St. Mary's Church at Cullingsburgh (HU54SW 5), is now preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities. It is of chlorite schist and measures 3 ft 9 in in height, being 1 ft 4 in wide at the top, 1 ft wide at the bottom, and 11 in thick. It is sculptured in relief on the two broad faces and inscribed on the narrow edges:
[Description from Allen and Andersson 1903, ECM, iii, 6-8].
"Front (Fig. 476). Near the top of the stone is a cross with arms having expanded ends, within a circle. The whole of the cross and the spaces between the arms are covered with interlaced work.... At each of the upper corners of the slab, above the circular cross, is a monster disgorging or swallowing a small human figure placed between the two.... On each side of the circular cross are traces of interlaced ornament.
Immediately under the circular cross, in the centre, is a man on horseback, and on each side an ecclesiastic with pointed hood, crosier, and book-satchel slung over the shoulder. Above the horseman to the right is an S-shaped object like a serpent, and on the left a small equal-armed cross incised.
Below the figures just described is a piece of plait-work composed of four bands, and two beasts, one below the other. The upper one has the tail curled over its back and the lower one resembles a fat pig.
Back (Fig. 477).-Divided into three panels containing (1) a circular cross composed of inter laced rings, surrounded, along the top and sides, by two twisted bands forming loops in each 3 corner; and along the bottom side by two twisted bands combined with circular rings; (2) a pair of beasts with curling tails and open mouths facing each other; and (3) two ecclesiastics standing opposite to each other with pointed hoods, crosiers, and book-satchels.
Right Side. An ogham inscription on a stem line along the centre of the face in four words divided by double points, reading from the bottom upwards.
Left Side. A similar inscription to that on the right side in three words, also reading from the bottom upwards.
The Bressay Stone is described and illustrated in Stuart's Sculptured Stones (vol i, plates 94 and 95 and p. 30); D. Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (2nd ed. vol. ii, p. 240); the Journal of the British Archaeological Institute (vol. xxviii, p. 181).
Readings of the inscription will be found in R. Brash's Ogam Inscribed Monuments (p. 355); Sir J. Ferguson's Ogham Inscriptions (p. 135) ; by Dr. Graves in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (vol. vi, p. 248); by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Southesk in the Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. (vol. xviii, pp. 186-98); and by Professor John Rhys, LL.D., in the Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. (vol. xxvi, p. 297).
The way in which the inscription is cut on a stem line, with vowels represented by cross strokes instead of notches on the angle of the stone, with points between each word, and other peculiarities, shows that it belongs to the later or scholastic variety of ogham writing found in the Book of Ballymote and other Irish MSS., ranging in date from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries."
Rhys (1892, 297), in the paper referred to above, reads the two lines of oghams together as meaning ‘The cross of Natdad's daughter, child of Maqqddrroann’, which cannot be regarded as certain. It is possible that the oghams were cut on the stone at some time subsequent to its first erection.
RCAHMS 1946 No. 1084, pp.2-3, figs. 462, 476-7
