Field Visit

Date 15 August 2000

Event ID 920184

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/920184

This Class I Pictish symbol stone now stands within the Broomend of Crichie henge (NJ71NE 6), but it formerly stood a short distance towards the E. A block of grey granite, it measures 1.18m in breadth by up to 0.4m in thickness and in height 1.4m high. The stone, which has conspicuous band of quartz running diagonally through it, is unshaped, but tapers upwards from its base. On its S face it bears the incised figure of a Pictish elephant above a crescent and V-rod. The elephant is depicted with a curled limb-joint above the fore-leg, and additional curlicues at the back of each leg above the spirals of the feet. The V-rod is portrayed with a leaf-shaped 'blade' to the right, and a flower-like tail to the left. Both are furnished with curlicues. The angle of the rod is bracketed, with simple internal decoration. The internal area of the crescent is decorated with a succession of arcs.

Although the earliest records of the stone (by Stuart and Dalrymple) place it a short distance eastwards from the henge, the location identified by the Ordnance Survey lies towards the NE, at NJ 7798 1970. The area around the stone was examined when the henge was excavated in 1855, but the ground appeared to have been disturbed previously and there were no finds. A few flat stones lying nearby possibly came from a cist (noted by Ritchie). Thereafter the symbol stone was moved to the centre of the henge (OS 6-inch map, Aberdeenshire, 1st edition, 1869, sheet lxiv), where it stands to this day.

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH, IFr), 15 August 2000).

J Stuart 1856; C E Dalrymple 1884; J Ritchie 1920.