Archaeology Notes

Event ID 664231

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/664231

NH89NW 9 8242 9983.

(NH 8242 9983) Possibly 9th century AD bronze pin found June, 1974 by Miss M W Grant, in her garden at 3 Ben Bhraggie Drive, Golspie.

The pin is about 3" long with the tip missing. The head is expanded into a flat spatulate shape with a human face in low relief on one side and an interlace motif below the chin. The face was originally gilt. Donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) by Miss Grant.

Information contained in letter from M W Grant to Dr J Close-Brooks, NMAS, August 1974, and from location plan by M W Grant to OS, September 1974.

Technique and minor decorative detail link the pin convincingly to Pictish work of the 8th and 9th centuries, the closest parallel to the face being that carved on a whetstone from Portsoy, Banffshire, now in the British Museum. This stone also bears Pictish symbols.

J Close-Brooks 1977.

Miss Grant contacted; no further information.

Visited by OS (N K B) 11 December 1980.