Drainie

Drainie 15, Kinneddar, Moray, cross-slab fragments

Measurements: H 0.31m, W 0.31m, D 0.06m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NJ c 2230 6960

Present location: Elgin Museum (1978.160)

Evidence for discovery: found in 1900 in the old kirkyard at Kinneddar and presented to Elgin Museum.

Present condition: two conjoining fragments, on both of which the carving is very worn. Parts of the top and left-hand edges survive.

Description

These two fragments form part of the top left-hand portion of a cross-slab, carved in relief on one broad face. The workmanship is relatively poor compared to most of the Drainie collection. There is a plain flat-band border, within which is a cross outlined by roll mouldings, with square centre and square terminals to the two surviving arms. Centre and arms are filled with diagonal key pattern. An interlace knot fills the space to the left of the upper arm, and traces of similar ornament survive, very worn, between the other arms and shaft.

Date range: ninth or tenth century

Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 507.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018

NJ26NW 3.15 223 696.

Drainie No.15 is a fragment of a cross-slab of greyish sandstone, quadrangular in shape, with two sides broken away, and measuring about 1 foot square, and 2 1/2 inches in thickness. It is sculptured in relief on one face with a cross composed of a square centre, narrow arms and square terminals, ornamented by irregular key patterns. One panel of the background is decorated with a figure-of-eight knot, interlaced with a circle.

The stone was discovered in digging a grave in the old churchyard of Kinneddar in the summer of 1900, and preserved in Elgin Museum.

Allen and Anderson 1903, 507-8.

No. 15. Elgin Museum, Acc. No. 1978.160

Now in Elgin Museum (see NJ26SW 101.15).

(Undated) information in NMRS.