Gellyburn

Murthly 2, Gellyburn, Perthshire, Pictish cross-slab fragments

Measurements: H 0.79m, W 0.25m, D 0.10m

Stone type: grey sandstone

Place of discovery: NO 0939 3917

Present location: Perth Museum & Art Gallery (6/1949).

Evidence for discovery: found during building works in the wall of a house in the village of Gellyburn early in 1949.

Present condition: broken and worn.

Description

These two conjoining fragments represent the lower part of a cross-slab, carved in relief on both broad faces. The upper part of the slab is missing. Face A is edged with a roll moulding and bears the tapering shaft of a cross, also outlined by roll mouldings, at the top of which are two arcs representing the open armpits of the lower part of the cross-head. The shaft is filled with an upper panel of four running spirals terminating at the bottom in a beaked zoomorphic head. Below this is a panel of knotwork, consisting of two ring-knots and a basal stand.

Face C bore a circular cross-head with no shaft, outlined by a roll moulding, with open armpits and interlace in the surviving lower arm. Beneath the cross-head are carved in partial relief a crescent and V-rod over, and touching, a Pictish beast facing left.

Date: ninth century.

References: Calder 1951; Fraser 2008, no 184.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016

NO03NE 1 0939 3917

See also NO03NE 6 and NO12SW 205.3.

This cross-slab, now in Perth Museum, was found in the wall of a house at Gellyburn village (NO03NE 50) in 1949. Now broken, it bore a cross on one face and a roundel, crescent and V-rod and 'beast' on the reverse.

C S T Calder 1953; H Coutts 1970; RCAHMS 1985.

Class II symbol stone. Cross shaft on one face with a cross above a crescent and V-rod over an elephant on the other.No figures

A.Mack 1997 p.54