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Clatt, Clatt 2

Pictish Symbol Stone(S) (Pictish)

Site Name Clatt, Clatt 2

Classification Pictish Symbol Stone(S) (Pictish)

Alternative Name(s) Clatt Churchyard; Clatt Parish Church; Clatt Kirkyard; Kirktown Of Clatt, Old Parish Church

Canmore ID 17676

Site Number NJ52NW 7

NGR NJ 5389 2600

NGR Description NJ 5389 2600 and NJ 5384 2598

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/17676

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Aberdeenshire
  • Parish Clatt
  • Former Region Grampian
  • Former District Gordon
  • Former County Aberdeenshire

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Clatt 2, Aberdeenshire, Pictish symbol stone fragment

Measurements: H 0.38m, W 0.25m

Stone type:

Place of discovery: NJ 5389 2600

Present location: lost (since before 1967).

Evidence for discovery: found lying in the kirkyard at Clatt towards the end of the nineteenth century and photographed there in 1910.

Present condition:

Description

This small fragment was incised with part of a double disc and Z-rod.

Date: seventh century.

References: ECMS pt 3, 158: Fraser 2008, no 10.2.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2017

Activities

Field Visit (18 September 1967)

Stone 2, at NJ 5384 2598, on the outside of the churchyard wall, as described and illustrated (Clatt No. 3).

No trace of stone 1 or local knowledge regarding present location. (See NJ52NW 29.)

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RL) 18 September 1967.

Desk Based Assessment (1967)

NJ52NW 7 5389 2600 and 5384 2598

See also NJ52NW 23.

For Pictish symbol stone ('Clatt 1') from Clatt Churchyard removed to Knockespock House (NJ 5442 2408), see NJ52SW 12. See also NJ52NW 29.

Two Pictish symbol stones remain within the churchyard at Clatt.

1. A small fragment of triangular shape 15ins in length and 10 inches greatest breadth, lying in 1910 among tall grass at the base of the western gable of the church. It may be part of the stone recorded in the NSA (1845) as being about 5 feet in length and 3 feet in breadth and bearing several single and concentric circles and other figures representing barbed arrows. In 1842 it formed part of the old churchyard wall but it was not seen in 1903 by Allen. The fragment, bearing the double disc and Z-shaped rod symbol, is said by Allen to have been found shortly before 1903.

2. A larger fragment, up to 33 inches long by 14 inches broad, was found in January, 1905 at the base of the western wall of the churchyard into which it has now been built. It bears the 'elephant' symbol and the 'arch or horse-shoe' symbol.

New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845; J Stuart 1856; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; J Ritchie 1910; G F Browne 1921.

Information from OS.

External Reference (1980)

Neither stone was seen in 1972.

Stone 1 (Clatt No. 2) - Metric measurements 0.38m and under 0.3m breadth.

Stone 2 (Clatt No. 3)- Metric measurements 0.064 x 0.036m.

A third pictish symbol stone, now at Knockespock House, (NJ52SW 12), originally came from the old wall of the burial ground at Clatt.

RCAMS 1985.

Information from R Jones 1980.

Reference (1994)

(Clatt no. 2: NJ 5384 2598). Found in the churchyard at Clatt, this fragment (0.38m by 0.3m) bore parts of an incised double disc and Z-rod symbol. It could not be located by the OS in 1967.

(Clatt no. 3: NJ 5384 2598). This fragment was found in January 1905 and has parts of a 'beast' and an arch symbol; it was built into the external face of the churchyard wall, 10m S of the rear gate.

RCAHMS 1994.

Reference (1997)

Two class I symbol stones.

Clatt 2 : double-disc and Z-rod. (The fragment is now lost).

Clatt 3 : horseshoe over an elephant

A Mack 1997.

Field Visit (6 September 2000)

Three Pictish symbol stones have been found at Clatt:

1. Clatt no.1, is now at Knockespock House (NJ52SW 12).

2. The present whereabouts of the Pictish symbol stone fragment Clatt no.2 is unknown. The stone was first reported and illustrated in Allen and Anderson (1903, p.158, fig. 165), and a photograph of it was later published by James Ritchie (1910, pp.206-8, fig.2). It comprised a roughly triangular fragment of whinstone some 0.4m in length by 0.25m in breadth, bearing portions of an incised double-disc and Z-rod symbol. The greater part of one disc with an internal circle survived, together with the joining bar, a portion of the rim of the other disc, the transverse line of the Z-rod and a section of one of its horizontal members. The joining bar is shown by Allen and Anderson as concave-sided, but Ritchie's photograph depicts, and his text describes, its as straight-sided. An arc rising from the transverse line of the Z-rod probably represents the angle bracket frequently depicted on V- and Z-rods.

Allen and Anderson state that the stone had been recently discovered in Clatt kirkyard by Mr James Macdonald of Huntly (1903, 158). When seen by Ritchie it lay with other loose stones at the base of the western gable of the church, although his photograph shows it lying beside Clatt no.3, which is built into the out face of the kirkyard dyke (see below). Between his visit (c.1910) and an examination of the kirkyard by the Ordnance Survey in 1967, the fragment was lost. The Ordnance Survey suggest that this stone is that described by the New Statistical Account (composed August 1842), but this is more probably a reference to Clatt no.1.

3. Clatt no.3 is an incomplete Class I symbol stone built into the lowest visible course of the outer face of the W wall of Clatt kirkyard, 10m S of the gate, where it was discovered in January 1905 by the schoolmaster, Mr W. Stewart, following the removal of an accumulation of earth from the foot of the wall (Ritchie 1910, p.208). The face of the stone, which is a pink granite, measures 0.83m in length by 0.35m in breadth. It now lies on its side, but would have originally displayed an arch symbol above a Pictish elephant, both outlined in a shallow incised line. The left hand side of the arch, now on the left side of the stone, has been lost, as have the hind legs and tail of the elephant on the right. Each leg of the arch is decorated with a curving line. Below the elephant, and to the left of its forefoot, is a small rectangular shape, set obliquely to the rest of the design. It appears to contain a longitudinal medial line and is possibly the remains of a comb symbol. This is visible in the James Ritchie photograph, although not remarked upon in his text (Ritchie 1910, p.207, fig.2).

Visited by RCAHMS (I Fr), 6 September 2000.

NSA 1845; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; J Ritchie 1910.

Note

Stone 1 (Clatt No. 2) NJ52NW 7.

Stone 2 (Clatt No. 3) NJ52NW 230.

References

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