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Lunnasting
Ogham Inscribed Stone (Early Medieval)
Site Name Lunnasting
Classification Ogham Inscribed Stone (Early Medieval)
Canmore ID 1190
Site Number HU46NE 11
NGR HU 46 65
NGR Description HU c. 46 65
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1190
- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Nesting
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
Lunnasting, Shetland, ogham-inscribed fragment
Measurements: H 1.12m, W 0.33m tapering to 0.20m, D 0.04m
Stone type: flagstone
Place of discovery:
Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (IB.113).
Evidence for discovery: found about 1.5m down in a peat bog in the parish of Lunnasting in 1876 and taken to a nearby cottage. It was presented to the museum that same year.
Present condition: broken at the narrow end.
Description
An undressed tapering slab, one broad face is incised with a vertical inscription in bind ogham with one end missing and an equal armed cross. One arm of the cross has an expansion formed of two lines at an angle, perhaps to indicate the foot of the cross. If this is so the cross is upside down in relation to the inscription and may have been added later. The inscription includes the personal name, Nechtan.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
References: Goudie 1878, 24; ECMS pt 3, 17-18; Forsyth 1996, 402-19; Scott & Ritchie 2009, no 52.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
Note (1946)
Ogham-inscribed Stone: The Lunnasting Stone. This important monument, now preserved in the National Museum, is described (1) as having been found "at a depth of 5 feet from the surface, in a moss, at a distance of some miles from any known ruin." It measures 3 ft. 8 ½ in. by about 13 in. by 1 ½ in., and bears on its flat surface a complete inscription in oghams, some of which are unusual. Rhys read the inscription:
XTT O/U CUHETTS AHEHHTTMNNN HCCVVEVVUNEHHTONN, and suggested as the translation "King Nechtan of the kin of Ahehhtmnnn." (2). But this cannot be regarded as certain.
RCAHMS 1946
(1) Goudie, The Celtic and Scandinavian Antiquities of Shetland, p. 35.
(2) P.S.A.S., xxxii (1897-8), pp. 373-4.
