Newtyle Parish Kirk, Kirkyard

Newtyle 1, Perthshire, Pictish cross-slab

Measurements: H c 2.74m, W 1.17m, D 0.23m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO c 296 412

Present location: lost.

Evidence for discovery: in 1569, Henry Sinclair, Dean of Glasgow, recorded a standing stone at Newtyle, one of which was carved and known as the Thane Stone. Tradition held that the Thane of Glamis had caused two stones to be set up, of which one survived into the sixteenth century. They are likely to have been in the parish churchyard.

Present condition:

Description

Sinclair described the carving as ‘ane cors at the heid of it, and ane goddess next that in ane cairt, and two hors drawand hir, and horsemen under that, and fuitmen and dogges, halkis and serpentis: on the west side of it, ane cors curiouslie gauit; bot all is maid of ane auld fassane of schap’. This was evidently a large cross-slab, carved on both broad faces in what seemed in 1569 to be an old-fashioned style, and aligned north/south. The west face bore an elaborately carved cross (‘curiouslie grauit’), perhaps infilled with interlace, while the east face bore a cross at the top, above a female figure in a cart drawn by two horses, and below the cart a hunting scene with horsemen, footmen, dogs, hawks and serpents.

Date: probably ninth or tenth century.

References: Chalmers 1848, 9; Ritchie 1995, 2, 9 fn 1.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016

Newtyle 2, Perthshire, Pictish cross-slab?

Measurements: H

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO c 296 412

Present location: lost.

Evidence for discovery: its existence at Newtyle was remembered but it was already missing in 1569.

Present condition:

Description

Although this stone is recorded as one of a pair with Newtyle 1, no description of it survives.

Date:

References: Chalmers 1848, 9; Ritchie 1995, 2, 9.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016