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Annan, Town Hall, The Bruce Stone
Inscribed Stone (Period Unknown)
Site Name Annan, Town Hall, The Bruce Stone
Classification Inscribed Stone (Period Unknown)
Canmore ID 257205
Site Number NY16NE 39.01
NGR NY 19180 66586
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/257205
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Annan
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NY16NE 39.01 19180 66586
An inscribed stone, said to have come from the ruins of a castle or building at or beside The Moat, was seen and copied by the travellers Pococke and Pennant. In 1760 Pococke desribed it as "a stone taken from the old building." In the Caledonia Chalmers wrote of it as "built into the wall of a gentleman's garden." In the New Statistical Account it is stated to have been "built into the wall of a small vintage-house in a garden in the town." Subsequently acquired by an antiquarian resident in the town, it was taken away by him on his removal to the south of England. The inscription is in well-formed lettering of Lombardic capitals, but the Arabic numerals forming the date "1300" are obviously not original and are no cut with either the depth or breadth of the lettering. The stone is decayed and damaged in parts. The inscription is as follows:-
ROBERT.DE.BRVS.
COUNTE.DE.CA
[RRIK].ET.SENZ[N]U
R].DU.VAL.D[E.AN]N
AND.1300
At the end of the third line the Z [yot] alone offers difficulty. Pennant, with some justification, read the word as SENTEUR, against which, apart from the sense, there is only to be said that the fourth letter has a straight horizontal top, while every T in the inscription has a curving top. In all likelihood the word is, as has always been supposed, a corrupt rendering of SEIGNEUR, perhaps in some such form as SENGNUR or SENYOUR. The date 1300 was a shrewd enough computation: such an inscription could not correctly date in any case earlier than 1292 or later than 1306.
RCAHMS,
EXTERNAL REFERENCE
Robert the Bruce's Stone.
Receipt by James Ramie to Mr George Blaire, Clerk of Annan, factor to the Marquess of Annandale, for eighteen pence 'for hewing and laying ane harth of stoune in Richard Grahame of Blackwood's house in Annan where Robert the Bruce's stoune was taken out for the said noble Marques his use'.
13 November 1723 Couchers George Blair's accounts NRA(S) 393 Bundle 168
(Johnstone of Annandale)
Note (1920)
Inscribed Stone, Annan.
An inscribed stone, said to have come from the ruins of a castle or building at or beside The Moat, was seen and copied by the travellers Pococke and Pennant. In 1760 Pococke described it as ‘a stone taken from the old building’. In the Caledonia Chalmers wrote of it as ‘built into the wall of a gentleman's garden’. In the New Statistical Account it is stated to have been ‘built into the wall of a small vintage-house in a garden in the town’. Subsequently acquired by an antiquarian resident in the town, it was taken away by him on his removal to the south of England. The inscription is in well-formed lettering of Lombardic capitals, but the Arabic numerals forming the date ‘1300’ are obviously not original and are not cut with either the depth or breadth of the lettering. The stone is decayed and damaged in parts. The inscription is as follows:
ROBERT ⸱ DE ⸱ BRVS ⸱
COUNTE ⸱ DE ⸱ CA
[RRIK] ⸱ ET ⸱ SEN3[N]U
R] ⸱ DU ⸱ VAL ⸱ D[E ⸱ AN]N
AND ⸱ 1300
At the end of the third line the 3 alone offers difficulty. Pennant, with some justification, read the word as SENTEUR, against which, apart from the sense, there is only to be said that the fourth letter has a straight horizontal top, while every T in the inscription has a curving top. In all likelihood the word is, as has always been supposed, a corrupt rendering of SEIGNEUR, perhaps in some such form as SENGNUR* or SENYOUR. The date 1300 was a shrewd enough computation: such an inscription could not correctly date in any case earlier than 1292 or later than 1306.
See Pococke's Tours in Scotland (Scottish History Society, 1887), p. 35, where the bishop's transcription is reproduced in facsimile; Pennant's Tour in Scotland, ii. p.96; Chalmers' Caledonia, iii. p. 139; Neilson in Trans. Dumf. and Gall. Antiq. Soc., 1915-16, p. 69 ff.
RCAHMS 1920
*'Seingnur' is found, e.g., in Berne MS. See facsimile in Acts Parl. Scot., vol. i.
