Archaeology Notes

Event ID 759500

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/759500

NO22NW 7.04 2280 2745

Not to be confused with NO22NW 7.02 which is the structure with lions and a mermaid figure.

(Polygonal sundial of facetted type) "1563, removed from Holyrood Palace. Sundial of complex design with vertical and facet dials: badly weathered. 4 Rampant lions support bell?-capital and mermaid figure" (NMRS). OS Name Book (1861) says "bears the date of 1563 and is said to have been in the gardens of Mary Queen of Scots at Holyrood Palace". There is some confusion in these records: the structure with the mermaid and lions does not appear to be a sundial and has no date; another structure, an octagonal block on a pillar with a horse's head finial is a dial with 11 faces and has a worn date which could be 1563 (but possibly 1668). The plinth has the initials "MR" (Maria Regina?). If the date 1563 is correct, this is the oldest known polyhedral dial in Scotland.

The date on the dial block is certainly 1563 and it has a square and compass symbol above it. The horse's head finial is of a different stone. The pillar with the initials "MR" is also different and probably Victorian - it has an inscription on the base which seems to give the history of the dial but is only partly legible.

Visited 14 April 1987.

A R Somerville 1990.