Bute, St Blane's

Cross-shaft fragment of sandstone, rediscovered in the upper churchyard during the present survey and moved to Bute Museum in 1996. It is broken across in two places and is incomplete in both thickness and width, lacking the left edge. It measures 0.78m in height by 0.25m and 75mm in thickness and has a 30mm edge-moulding which returns to frame a series of panels. Only a fragment of that at the top is preserved, and there are no remains of ornament, but in the next one there is the figure of a disproportionately large rider moving to the left. He is armed with a spear whose head is visible between the horse's forelegs, and in one hand he raises to his face a curved object which appears to be a drinking-horn. A curving line behind the rider's head probably represents stylised hair rather than a helmet, and the horse's reins are indicated, but the surface is worn and no other details are preserved. The lowest panel, which is broken at the foot, is filled with tight diagonal plaitwork with triangles at the angles and sides. A panel on the right edge, which ends at the same height as the rider panel, contains the remains of double-beaded plaitwork.

(Hewison 1893, 1, 221-2; Anderson 1900, 322 and fig.30 on p.321; Allen and Anderson 1903, 3, 407, no.2 and fig.426 on p.408; Schultz album, pl.7; Cross 1984, B14; TBNHS, 24 (1996), 61 and fig. on p.60).

Fisher 2001.