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Dunachton
Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Dunachton
Classification Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Alternative Name(s) Dunachton Lodge, Symbol Stone
Canmore ID 14913
Site Number NH80SW 2.01
NGR NH 8208 0461
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/14913
- Council Highland
- Parish Alvie
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Badenoch And Strathspey
- Former County Inverness-shire
Dunachton, Inverness-shire, Pictish symbol stone
Measurements: H 1.31m, W 0.40m, D 0.11m
Stone type: diorite
Place of discovery: NH c 820046
Present location: on terrace beside Dunachton Lodge (prone in 2009).
Evidence for discovery: found in 1870 when the old steading was demolished and the stones used to build the new Lodge. It had been re-used as a lintel over a door in the steading. It was erected on a sandstone base in the Lodge garden and has fallen and been re-erected several times. Dunachton Lodge was built on the site of a castle.
Present condition: good, except that the top right corner is missing.
Description
This is a tapering pillar-like slab, with a single symbol incised at one end. This is the deer’s head, here facing right, with a large eye, pricked ear, spiral at the base of the back of the neck, and a vertical line ending in a hollow up the middle of the neck. The end of the deer’s snout is now missing.
Date: seventh century.
References: ECMS pt 3, 100-101; Fraser 2008, no 91.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2017
Field Visit (30 November 1966)
Situated at NH 8208 0461, the symbol stone is as described and illustrated by Romilly Allen.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R L) 30 November 1966.
Desk Based Assessment
NH80SW 2.01 NH 8208 0461 Pictish Symbol Stone
In 1870, an incised symbol stone was found serving as a lintel in the old steading at Dunachton (the stones of which were used in building the Lodge). It has been erected on the terrace at the S. corner of the garden, about 100 yards. from the front door of the Lodge. It is 4'3 1/2" x 16" x 4 1/2" with incised lines on one face.
Information from OS.
Name Book 1871; C Fraser-Mackintosh 1866; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903.
