Drainie

Drainie 3, Kinneddar, Moray, cross-slab fragments

Measurements: H 0.16m, W 0.30m, 0.06m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NJ c 223 696

Present location: Elgin Museum (1855.1.4)

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: broken into two conjoining fragments and very weathered.

Description

Together these fragments form part of the central portion of a cross-slab, carved in relief on both broad faces. Drainie 8 is a conjoining part of the same slab and shows that it tapered towards the base. Face A is carved with much of the head of a plain cross with circular armpits, the side-arms of which spanned the width of the slab. The background to the cross is also plain, and Drainie 8 provides part of the shaft. Face C is carved with a poorly delineated donkey walking towards the right, who may or may not have had a rider. Drainie 8 furnishes a warrior facing right below the donkey.

Date: ninth or tenth century.

References: Stuart 1856, pl 130; ECMS pt 3, 143.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017