Dores, Clune Farm

Dores 1, Clune Farm, Inverness-shire, Pictish symbol stone fragment

Measurements: H 0.42m, W 0.56m, D 0.18m

Stone type: diorite

Place of discovery: NH 6057 3542

Present location: National Museums Scotland (X.IB 38)

Evidence for discovery: found on Clune Farm in the nineteenth century, it was subsequently trimmed and re-used in the chimney of a cottage. Shortly before 1876 it was removed and given to NMAS.

Present condition: broken edges but the carving is clear.

Description

This is the central portion of a slab incised on one broad face with a boar. Only the legs and part of the body survive, but the hooves and dewlaps claws are clear on the two forelegs and one hind leg, and there are traces of the long snout and spine bristles.

Date: seventh century.

References: Anderson 1889, 347-8; ECMS pt 3, 97; Fraser 2008, no 108.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2017

NH63NW 13 6057 3542

A flat stone, with the figure of a boar incised on one face was found " about thirty years before" when reclaiming waste land not far from a cottage on Clune Farm. When first found it was much larger but was broken in the excavation and then trimmed for use in the chimney-head of the cottage whence it was removed by the author. It now measures 22 inches by 16 1/2 inches by 7 inches in thickness.

J Anderson 1889.

The stone shows three legs and the middle portion of the body of a beast, probably wild boar, ornamented with spiral curves. It is now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Cat. No. IB 38).

Information from OS.

PSAS 1878; J R Allen 1903.