Drainie

Drainie 6, Kinneddar, Moray, carved fragment

Measurements: H 0.16m, W 0.16m, D 0.09m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NJ c 223 696

Present location: Elgin Museum (1855.1.1)

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: all edges are broken and the carving is weathered.

Description

This small fragment could be part of a panel or a cross-slab. It is carved in relief on one broad face with part of a panel within a roll-moulded frame, with a wide border. The stately trumpet spirals within the frame contrast with the finely corded, almost knitted, interlace of the border. The four surviving spirals are triple in form and appear to grow out of one another and in one case appears to be attached to their frame via a double spiral. Two leaf-shaped pellets nestle in one of the voids.

Date range: eighth century

Primary references: Stuart 1856, pl 130; ECMS pt 3, 144.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018