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Bourtie Parish Church, Pictish Symbol Stone
Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Bourtie Parish Church, Pictish Symbol Stone
Classification Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Canmore ID 19726
Site Number NJ82SW 4
NGR NJ 8045 2485
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/19726
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Bourtie
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Gordon
- Former County Aberdeenshire
Kirkton of Bourtie 1 (Bourtie Parish Church), Aberdeenshire, Pictish symbol stone fragment
Measurements: H 0.87m, W 0.30m
Stone type: blue whinstone
Place of discovery: NJ 8045 2485
Present location: built into the south wall of the church beneath the eaves at the east end.
Evidence for discovery: first recorded in the wall in the mid nineteenth century.
Present condition: broken and weathered.
Description
This slab is the right-hand portion of a symbol stone, incised with a crescent and V-rod above a double disc and Z-rod (of which two symbols only parts survive), and below them an intact mirror and part of a double-sided comb (the right-hand part of the comb has flaked off).
Date: seventh century.
References: Stuart 1856, pl 132; ECMS pt 3, 157; Fraser 2008, no 6.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017
Field Visit (5 March 1964)
The symbol stone is as described and illustrated above. It is set longitudinally in the south wall of the church, 1.0m. from the south east corner.
Revised at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (NKB) 5 March 1964.
Desk Based Assessment (1964)
NJ82SW 4 8045 2485
(NJ 8045 2485) Sculptured Stone (NR)
OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1928).
See also NJ82SW 5.00.
Not to be confused with incised stone (NJ82SW 5.01) built into wall-coping on S side of church.
This symbol stone is built into the south wall of Bourtie (Parish) Church (NJ82SW 5.00) near the east end, outside, just below the eaves of the roof. It is a slab of blue whinstone, of rectangular shape, 2 feet 4 inches long by 1 foot 2 inches wide, sculptured with incised lines on one face.
'It is accurately illustrated and described' by Stuart (1856).
J Stuart 1856; J Allen and J R Anderson 1903.
Information from OS.
Reference (1994)
This Pictish symbol stone is built into an exterior wall of the church, high up at the E end of the S face.
RCAHMS 1994.
Reference (1997)
Class I symbol stone : crescent and V-rod above a double-disc and Z-rod which is over a mirror-and-comb.
A Mack 1997.
Field Visit (14 August 2000)
A Class 1 Pictish symbol stone is built into the upper courses of the S wall of Bourtie parish church, towards its SE corner, and at a height of about 5m. The stone, which is weathered and has suffered from considerable scaling, is not readily interpretable from ground level. Nevertheless, the incised crescent and V-rod can be made out towards its right-hand, formerly its upper, end. The stone has clearly been reshaped to serve its present function.
Visited by RCAHMS (IFr, 14 August 2000).
