Drainie
Cross Slab (Early Medieval), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Drainie
Classification Cross Slab (Early Medieval), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Alternative Name(s) Kinneddar Church; Drainie No. 32
Canmore ID 288512
Site Number NJ26NW 3.32
NGR NJ 224 696
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/288512
- Council Moray
- Parish Drainie
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Moray
- Former County Morayshire
NJ26NW 3.32 NJ 224 696
Elgin Museum Accession Number 1994.61.
NJ 224 696 The following description relates to a Class II Pictish stone, probably originally from Kinneddar, Moray, recently acquired by Elgin Museum, and now displayed with the collection of Kinneddar and other Pictish stonework.
The cross slab is of roughly dressed sandstone and has traces of mortar on the reverse. It measures c 46 x 38 x 8cm (18 x 15 x 3"), but may have been broken off below the cross arms. The low-relief carving is on one face only:
The cross has round hollow angles and a central boss. The ornamentation on the cross is mostly obliterated except for the incised double circle and 4-lobed central motif of the boss, and key patterning (cf Drainie 15, ECMS) on the arm near the comb symbol.
The background panels have a) a double-sided comb surrounded by repetitive step symbol patterning; b) an arch-type symbol with round ends suggesting a penannular bracelet and a plain mirror; c) parts of two panels of key patterning.
The slab probably originates from the Christian Pictish monastic settlement of Kinneddar (Lossiemouth), which is also one of the 12th-century sites of the Bishopric of Moray. Some 26 Pictish stones and fragments have been reported - most are now in Elgin Museum, some are in the National Museum of Scotland, and some are lost again. When the first Drainie Kirk was built (first service 1677), after Kinneddar and Ogston parishes were united, the ruinous Kinneddar Kirk and environs would have been a convenient source of stone for Drainie.
For the 30 years until 1994 the slab lay in Gordonstoun House. In 1953 the ruins of the first Drainie Kirk (NJ 1995 6921) were cleared when what is now RAF Lossiemouth extended a runway. The stones came to Gordonstoun as heritors of the Kirk and were dumped in the grounds. About 1965 when a master was collecting stone to build a wall around the garden at the school house, Altyre, this dump was raided. Robin Birley recognised this as a Pictish stone; although no more were found, the wall built contains other dressed stones from the Kirk.
Sponsor: Moray Society.
J Trythall 1996
