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East Lomond Hill
Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name East Lomond Hill
Classification Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Canmore ID 29885
Site Number NO20NW 23
NGR NO 2440 0620
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/29885
- Council Fife
- Parish Falkland
- Former Region Fife
- Former District North East Fife
- Former County Fife
East Lomond Hill, Fife, Pictish symbol stone?
Measurements: H 0.43m, W 0.31m, D 0.08m
Stone type: yellow sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 2440 0620
Present location: National Museums Scotland (X.IB 205)
Evidence for discovery: found around 1920 lying within the south part of the fort on East Lomond Hill and taken to a private house in Falkland. It was given to NMAS in 1925.
Present condition:
Description
The carved surface of this fragment has a vertical natural ridge through the incised image of a bovine and it may have sheared off a rock face. Its Pictish attribution is uncertain because the bovine lacks the spiral joints and carefully depicted hooves of Pictish bulls, and, as Alcock pointed out, the animal is a steer rather than a bull.
Date: uncertain.
References: Corrie 1926, 32-4; Alcock 2003, 207; Fraser 2008, no 80.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
East Lomond Hill, Fife, possible Pictish symbol stone
Measurements: H 0.43m, W 0.31m, D 0.08m
Stone type: yellow sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 2440 0620
Present location: National Museums Scotland (X.IB 205)
Evidence for discovery: found around 1920 lying within the south part of the fort on East Lomond Hill and taken to a private house in Falkland. It was given to NMAS in 1925.
Present condition:
Description
The carved surface of this fragment has a vertical natural ridge through the incised image of a bovine and it may have sheared off a rock face. Its Pictish attribution is uncertain because the bovine lacks the spiral joints and carefully depicted hooves of Pictish bulls, and, as Alcock pointed out, the animal is a steer rather than a bull.
Date: uncertain.
References: Corrie 1926, 32-4; Alcock 2003, 207; Fraser 2008, no 80.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
Field Visit (11 June 1925)
Slab with Incised Bull from the East Lomond.
This stone was discovered within the south side of the fort on the summit of the East Lomond, and has been presented to the National Museum of Antiquities. It is an irregularly-shaped slab of yellow sandstone, measuring at most 17 inches by 12 inches and 3 inches thick, bearing on the upper part the incised figure of a bull walking. The action of the bull is spirited and is naturalistically rendered. The sculpture has been executed by pecking-in the outline of the figure. It differs in detail from the well-known examples from Burghead and Inverness. Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. lx (1925-5), pp. 32-4.
RCAHMS 1933, visited 11 June 1925.
Publication Account (1987)
The fort [NO20NW 20] on East Lomond Hill occupies the summit as well as a lower terrace on the north. The hilltop is crowned by a large bronze-age cairn about 13m in diameter [NO20NW 144], now surmounted by a geographical indicator. There are two encircling ramparts, the inner one surviving best on the north-west, but elsewhere the lines are shown by scarps. The lower terrace has also been defended by a rampart, best seen on the north-east. An enigmatic line of defence may be seen at the base of the knoll on the south flank where there is a further bank and ditch.
An indication that activity continued into the first millennium AD is provided by the discovery around 1920 of a slab [NO20NW 23] bearing the incised figure of a bull in a rather effete Pictish style on the south side of the fort; the stone is now in the RMS, Queen Street, Edinburgh.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
