St Nicholas Church, Holm
Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Site Name St Nicholas Church, Holm
Classification Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Canmore ID 260123
Site Number HY50SW 14.01
NGR HY 510 006
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/260123
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Holm
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
St Nicholas’ Church, Holm, Orkney, recumbent cross-slab
Measurements: L 1.42m, W 0.44m tapering to 0.33m at the foot
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: HY 5104 0063
Present location: St Margaret’s Chapel, Graemeshall, Holm.
Evidence for discovery: found in the floor of St Nicholas’ Church during repair work in 1893, and subsequently taken to the new private chapel at Graemeshall.
Present condition: very worn.
Description
The slab has been shaped and carved on one broad face in low relief with a flatband moulding along the edges and an almost central cross. The latter consists of an equal-armed cross-head on a narrow shaft on a square base. The cross is outlined with roll moulding, and the side-arms overlap the edge moulding (there is no bar between the shaft and the base as shown in ECMS). The centre of the cross-head is square, thus forming stepped and closed armpits. It is clear that the cross was entirely filled with various forms of interlace, but the carving inside the upper, left-hand and lower arms, as well as the central panel, is very worn and difficult to make out. The ornament in the right-hand arm consists of a circle interlaced by a four-loop cord, the shaft is filled with triangular interlace enclosing central lozenges and the base with symmetrical triquetra knots in a cruciform pattern.
Date: tenth century.
References: ECMS pt 3, 21-3; RCAHMS 1946, no 359, fig 152; Fisher 2002, 45-7; Scott & Ritchie 2014, no 25.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2017
HY50SE 14.01 510 006
Formerly HY40SE 8.01 485 020
(Temporary record: The National Museum of Scotland's database of early medieval sculpture lists a cross-slab at Graemeshall Chapel, Holm. No further detail is available at present.)
Information from RCAHMS (IFr), 16 June 2004.
Field Visit (6 August 1929)
(1) In the private chapel of the mansion-house at Graemeshall, built against the N. wall near the altar, is a rectangular cross-slab of sandstone (ECM, iii, 21-2), found many years ago in the floor of the parish church at Holm and removed to its present position for better preservation. Sculptured in relief on one face only, it is 4 ft. 9 in. in length, while its width is 15 in. at the ends and 1 ft. 4 ½ in. in the middle. Around the edge is a flat moulding, within which a cross, slightly raised above the background, is outlined by a similar but narrower moulding. The cross rises from a square base, and originally the whole design was elaborately ornamented. The upper portion is now very much defaced, but the shaft and base still show clear traces of interlaced work of varied pattern.
(2) In the same chapel is a small sepulchral slab, incised with three swords, found in the churchyard of Holm. The stone is remarkable for the triple sculpturing of the sword, which is of very rare occurrence (PSAS, xxxc, 150). A slab with three swords sculptured in relief at Finlaggan, Islay,is figured in Graham's Carved Stones of Islay, p.29.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 6 August 1929.
