Drainie

Drainie 11, Kinneddar, Moray, cross-slab fragment

Measurements: H 0.26m, W 0.48m, D 0.11m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NJ c 223 696

Present location: Elgin Museum (1855.1.11)

Evidence for discovery: found in or prior to 1855; according to Stuart (1856, 40), ‘most of

the other fragments [ ie nos 2-13] were found in old dykes about the Manse, and a few were dug up in the old churchyard’. The old manse stood close to the graveyard and the site of Kinneddar old parish church and early medieval foundation, then located beside a sea loch.

Present condition: top and bottom edges are broken but the carving is in good condition.

Description

Part of the upper portion of a cross-slab, this fragment is carved in relief on one broad face. It has plain flatband mouldings along both sides, and contains part of a cross-head outlined by a roll moulding, with rectangular terminals and circular armpits. There is a circular panel of key pattern at the centre of the cross-head and rectangular panels of key pattern in both side-arms. Traces of pecking at the top of the shaft indicate that ornament there, but the upper arm appears to have been plain to a point a little farther from the start of the armpits. There are also traces of a roll-moulded panel in the top right-hand corner.

Date: ninth century

References: Stuart 1856, pl 130; ECMS pt 3, 147-8.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018