Drainie

Drainie 17, Kinneddar, Moray, cross-slab fragment

Measurements: H 0.43m, W 0.61m, D 0.09m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NJ c 2230 6960

Present location: Elgin Museum (1855.12)

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: the lower edge is broken and the other three edges are damaged.

Description

This may be the upper part of a cross-slab, but it is also possible that it is part of an altar frontal. It is carved on one broad face in both relief and incision with a cross set within a broad plain frame. The cross has rounded armpits and squared terminals to the arms, and the base of the shaft is missing. the entire cross is outlined by an inner incised line and is otherwise plain. The side-arms terminate well short of the plain incised border, but the upper arm projects through the border. The slab clearly extended beyond the border but has been trimmed back, perhaps in order to re-use an altar component as a cross-slab.

Date range: eighth or ninth century.

Primary references: Stuart 1856, pl 129.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018