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Drumbuie
Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Drumbuie
Classification Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Canmore ID 12626
Site Number NH53SW 1.01
NGR NH 51 30
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12626
- Council Highland
- Parish Urquhart And Glenmoriston
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
Drumbuie 1, Inverness-shire, Pictish symbol stone fragment
Measurements: H 0.76m, W 0.76m, D 0.06m
Stone type: brown sandstone
Place of discovery: NH c 517 302
Present location: National Museums Scotland (X.IB 287)
Evidence for discovery: found during ploughing in the 1860s around the site of an old grain kiln, along with Drumbuie 2. Both were covering a cist-like structure built of upright stones, which is likely to have been an earlier corn-drying kiln. They were taken to Balmacaan House until they were acquired by NMAS in 1955 and taken to Edinburgh.
Present condition: the edges of the slab are broken and irregular, but the carving is in reasonable condition, apart from damage by flaking to the left-hand disc.
Description
Incised on this slab are a plain serpent and Z-rod symbol above a double disc symbol.
Date: seventh century.
References: ECMS pt 3, 99-100.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2017
Field Visit (9 February 1969)
No further information.
Visited by OS (R L) 9 Feburary 1969
External Reference (1980)
NH53SW 1.1 51 31
No. 1. This stone, set into a stone slab, is of irregular shape measuring 0.72m high and 0.7m wide. It appears to have been broken from a larger slab and is partially cracked and flaking. At the top is an incised carving of a serpent and Z-rod with scroll-ends, and below is a plain double disc symbol. The stone is in the Royal Museum of Scotland (RMS, formerly the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS]) (Accession no. IB 287).
Information from R Jones to OS 1980
Reference (1997)
Two Class I symbol stones.
Drumbuie 1 : Serpent and Z-Rod above a Double Disc.
Drumbuie 2 : Salmon above a Mirror case,to the left of a Mirror and Comb .
A.Mack 1997
Desk Based Assessment
NH53SW 1 51 30.
Two symbol stones were found in a cairn on the farm of Drumbuie (NH 5130-5131) about 1869.
One stone is a rough-surfaced weatherworn slab of irregular shape, its greatest length being 2' 6" and its greatest breadth being 2' 6". It bears the spectacle symbol and Z rod with intertwined serpent.
The second stone, evidently a fragment, is 3' 8" in greatest length and 2' 10" in greatest breadth. Its surface is rough and weatherworn. It bears two mirror symbols, the tail of a fish and the gridiron symbol.
W MacKay 1886
These stones were discovered in 1864 while ploughing round the site of an old grain-kiln on Drumbuie farm. They formed the covering of a cist-like structure containing earth and sand mixed with ashes and charcoal, but no human remains. (They were acquired by the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1955 [Accession nos. IB 287 & 288]).
Information from OS.
J R Allen and J Anderson 1903, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1935
