Field Visit

Date 3 July 2000

Event ID 920529

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/920529

This Class II Pictish symbol stone, which now stands in the SE corner of the tower of Monymusk Parish Church (NJ61NE 4.00) was discovered in about 1800, in a field near the River Don, where it was said to have lain from time immemorial.

A granite pillar, it measures 0.8m in width by 0.45m in thickness and 2.16m in height. It is unshaped, tapering gradually upwards to a rounded head, and is roughly triangular in section. Although striated vertically by weathering, the broad front face maintains a fairly even surface, and the carving, which cuts across the striations, is in mixture of broad, shallow, incised line, and very low relief, possibly a response to the character of the surface. Despite this, and the way that the carving follows irregularities of the stone, the quality of work is high and the lines of the design have been carefully laid out.

On the upper part of the stone there is an equal- and hollow-armed cross with a central disc. This is decorated with curvilinear ornament comprising two sets of four 'C' shaped incised lines, set out in the form of a cross-pattee. The centre and terminals of this cross each contain an incised dot. The arms of the cross are rectangular and decorated by an interlace design based upon a circle interwoven with a saltire. The interstices of the left and right arms contain pellets, as does the lower interstice of the lower arm. The intervening space between this design and the central disc is filled by a concave sided quadrangle.

The cross is set upon a narrow shaft and semi-circular base formed in a single strand interlace, though the latter does not form a true closed pattern. An Ordnance Survey benchmark is deeply cut into the surface on the left side of the shaft (viewed from in front), while below both a step symbol extends horizontally across the stone, placed off centre to curve around the left edge of the slab. The body of the symbol is decorated with diagonally placed almond-shaped motifs, and each end is embellished with a spiral-armed pelta-shaped terminal.

Below this, the lowest quarter of the stone is occupied by a centrally placed triple-disc or cauldron symbol. The small flanking rings appear to be attached to the central disc by three short lines. Each disc is depicted as two concentric circles, but the central one is also elaborately decorated. In the centre are another two concentric rings surrounding a central dot, and the intervening space is filled by arcs and short lines. The latter suggest either the petals of a flower or a curvilinear armed cross.

Although worn, the sculpture is largely intact except for an area of damage extending along the right hand side of the central boss and the lower arm. The position of the stone close to the wall prevents any examination of the back of the stone.

The area in which the stone was found is a broad expanse of arable haughland on the south side of the river. On the instructions of the then Sir Archibald Grant, it was moved to the nearest part of the public road and placed upright at the steading of Nether Mains. The stone still stood beside the road in the mid-1860s, when it was surveyed there by the Ordnance Survey (OS 6-inch map, Aberdeenshire (1st edition), sheet lxiv, 1869), and it would have been at this time that the benchmark was cut into its face. Between then and the late 1890s it was taken to Monymusk House, where it was built into a recess behind a door in the billiard room. Between 1973 and 1985 it was moved to its present position in the church.

Visited by RCAHMS (IFr, 3 July 2000)

NSA 1845; J Stuart 1856; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903.