Dunecht House, South Terrace, Cross-incised Stone
Cross Incised Stone (Early Medieval)
Site Name Dunecht House, South Terrace, Cross-incised Stone
Classification Cross Incised Stone (Early Medieval)
Canmore ID 18521
Site Number NJ70NE 15.28
NGR NJ 75126 07760
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18521
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Echt
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Gordon
- Former County Aberdeenshire
Dunecht, Aberdeenshire, cross-incised slab
Measurements: H 0.80m, W 0.90m, D 0.50m
Stone type:
Place of discovery: NJ c 726 070
Present location: in the grounds of Dunecht House at NJ 7513 0776.
Evidence for discovery: found on the upper slopes of the Barmkin around 1841 and taken to the farm of Upper Mains of Echt (NJ 7351 0643), where it was built into a field wall. Around 1870 it was taken to its present location at Dunecht House. Its original location suggests that it was a boundary stone.
Present condition: the lower part of this slab is broken and part of the carved circle is lost.
Description
This very substantial slab is incised on one broad face with a large circle, very deeply pecked into a wide groove. Not quite central to the circle is a finely incised linear cross with slightly expanded terminals. Cross and circle may not be contemporary.
Date: early medieval.
References: Stuart 1867, pl 124; RCAHMS 2007, fig 7.11.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017
Field Visit (13 January 1965)
This stone, measuring 0.9m long, 0.5m thick and 0.8m high, is situated on the lawn of Dunecht House (NJ70NE 15.00) at NJ 7513 0776. It has been broken, so that only two thirds of the incised circle remain. The roughly hewn cross inside the circle is intact, measuring 0.2m across. The original site could not be ascertained.
Visited by OS (NKB) 13 January 1965.
Desk Based Assessment (1965)
NJ70NE 15.28 75126 07760
A stone, incised with a cross inside a circle, dating to between 1000 AD -12/13 century was found on the slopes of the Barmekin (NJ 726 070) some eighty years ago (c. 1841). It was afterwards built into a dyke on the farm of Upper Mains of Echt (NJ 735 064), where it remained for some twenty-five years, whence it was removed to its present site on the lawn of Dunecht House (NJ 751 078).
G F Browne 1921; W D Simpson 1943.
Information from OS, c.1965
