Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Reference
Date 2001
Event ID 922071
Category Documentary Reference
Type Reference
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/922071
A rock-cut 0.25m basin on a terrace NE of the summit-fort, and adjacent carvings on a horizontal rock-surface which was protected by a concrete replica in 1978, may have been used in royal inaugurations. The outline of a shod foot, 0.27m long and 25mm deep, and the pecked outline of another, are accompanied by an ogham inscription and a boar. This is 0.54m long and, although much worn, its underside shows the double outline typical of Pictish incised animals. An adjacent graffito figure is of recent origin.
The ogham inscription is in two lines, parallel to natural fissures in the rock but having no defined stem-lines. Jackson and Padel, while differing in their readings, agreed that it was unintelligible and probably Pictish. Forsyth found many ambiguities in the much-weathered upper line, which may begin with the Irish word AES ('folk'). She reads the lower line: FI(nn/rr)MaNA(ch/q), which may represent the Irish personal name 'Finn', with the descriptive manach ('monk' or 'tenant of church-land'). (K S Forsyth 1996, 227-41).
A much-damaged animal of uncertain date is incised on a vertical rock-face about 35m NNE of the main group of carvings.
I Fisher 2001.
