Archaeology Notes

Event ID 713841

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/713841

NT32NW 5 34807 27440

(Nt 3481 2744) STANDING STONE (NR)

OS 6" map (1900)

See also NT32NE 1.

The Yarrow Stone, Whitefield. This well-known early Christian monument stands 50 yds NW of the Selkirk-Moffat highway at a point about 1000 yds W of Yarrow Church (RCAHMS 1957, No. 10), and close to the track that leads to Whitefield. It is an irregular, shouldered slab of whinstone, 5 ft. 1/2 in. in height as now set, 2 ft. 7 1/2 in. in greatest width and 1 ft. 2 in. in general thickness (J A Smith 1863).

It was turned up by the plough at the beginning of the 19th century (C G Cash 1913) and when this ground, then a moor known as Annan Street, was first brought under cultivation; it was then lying prone just under the surface and the remains of human bones were found underneath it. At this time there were about twenty "large cairns" on the moor (NSA 1845). After having been removed to Bowhill for examination, it was returned to Annan Street and was erected at the place of its original discovery (J A Smith 1859).

With this stone must be associated two uninscribed stones in the vicinity - the Glebe Stone (No. 175), 530 yds to the ENE, and the stone at the Warrior's Rest (No. 176), 800 yds to the NE, which marks the site of an Early Christian cemetery. The E face of the stone bears a Latin inscription, roughly executed and in parts badly wasted, which has caused much trouble to epigraphists. (C G Cash 1913; R A S Macalister 1936; Scot Gaelic Stud, vol.2, 221; Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum, vol.1, No.515)

The Commissioners are greatly indebted to Mr C A Ralegh Radford, MA, FBA, FSA, and to Professor K H Jackson, MA, Litt.D, who visited and studied the stone and have produced the reports, respectively on the inscription and on the names occurring in it. They are also most grateful to Mr Radford for the drawing of the inscription, made from his own rubbings and observations, which is reproduced as Fig.132. (RCAHMS 1957).

The Yarrow Stone was set up to mark the grave of two British Christian chieftains. It dates from the early 6th century and falls into place in the Early Christian series more richly represented in Wales and Cornwall. The position chosen for the burial was not a churchyard but a small cemetery, probably the family or tribal graveyard alongside a trackway.

RCAHMS 1957, visited 1934 and 1952.

Very good condition, about 3ft high. Fenced.

Information from R Santen, 13 March 1953.

The stone is as described by RCAHMS: little of the inscription on the east face can be made out. The stone is surrounded by a wooden fence.

Visited by OS (EGC) 1 June 1962.

Yarrow Stone

(inscribed) [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, May 2010.