Dores

Dores 2, Inverness-shire, cross-slab fragment

Measurements: H 0.12m, W 0.09m, D 0.07m

Stone type:

Place of discovery: NH c 597 346

Present location: National Museums Scotland (X.IB 177)

Evidence for discovery: found in 1900 on the east shore of Loch Ness, where a burn enters the loch.

Present condition:

Description

This small fragment is incised on one face with key pattern, and it probably came from a cross-slab.

Date: eighth or ninth century.

References: ECMS pt 3, 517-18.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2017

NH53SE 2 598 345.

A small fragment of a sculptured stone, with a fretwork pattern, found on the shore of Loch Ness, near Dores, was given to the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1901, byt the Rev. J.E. Fraser of Dores.

The fragment measures 4 3/4 inches in length by 3 1/2 inches in breadth and 1 3/4 inches in thickness, but the back shows the natural lamination of the stone as if it had split off from a slab of greater thickness. Judging from the large scale of the pattern and the boldness of the incised sculpture it must have formed part of a monument, probably a cross-slab, of considerable size. The pattern is part of a design in fretwork not uncommon on the cross-slabs of the period of the Celtic Church.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1901

The fragment of sculptured slab was found in Oct. 1900, by the Rev. Fraser, among the stones on the shore of Loch Ness, in the estuary of a small stream which falls into the loch, within less than a mile of the site of the boar-incised stone (NH63NW 13) found near a cottage on

the farm of Clune (Name:NH 60 35).

J R Allen 1903

National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) Accession no. IB 177

Information from NMAS (catalogue IB2)