Drumbuie
Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Drumbuie
Classification Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Canmore ID 12627
Site Number NH53SW 1.02
NGR NH 51 30
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12627
- Council Highland
- Parish Urquhart And Glenmoriston
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
Drumbuie 2, Inverness-shire, Pictish symbol stone fragments
Measurements: H 1.12m, W 0.86m, D 0.06m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NH c 517 302
Present location: National Museums Scotland (X.IB 288)
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 slab has been broken into three pieces and cemented together, and the outer edges are broken and irregular, and much of the carving is very worn.
Description
Incised on these fragments are part of a salmon with detailed tail and scales, above a decorated disc and rectangle (or ‘mirror-case’), with a plain mirror and double-sided comb to its right.
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 1.2 51 30
No. 2 This stone of sandstone, measuring 0.98m high, 0.81m wide and 0.05m thick, is now broken into three fragments. Part of the carving is missing but there remains an incised mirror symbol of which the handle had partially flaked away, and a comb. On the left side is a circular disc and rectangle the centre of which is fitted with more circles. Above the latter is part of a fish the head of which has been broken off. The stone is in the Royal Museum of Scotland (RMS, formerly the National Museum of Antiquites of Scotland [NMAS]) (Accession no. IB 288).
Information from R Jones to OS 1980
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
