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Dundee, Invergowrie, St Peter's Church, No. 1
Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Site Name Dundee, Invergowrie, St Peter's Church, No. 1
Classification Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Dargie Church; Old Kirk; Old Parish Church
Canmore ID 318439
Site Number NO33SE 23.01
NGR NO 35069 30150
NGR Description Centred NO 35069 30150
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/318439
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Dundee (Perth And Kinross)
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District City Of Dundee
- Former County Angus
Invergowrie 1 (St Peter), Angus, cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.84m, W 0.53m tapering towards the base to 0.42m, D
Stone type: Old Red Sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 35069 30150
Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (X.IB.251).
Evidence for discovery: first recorded in the 1840s, when it and Invergowrie 2 were built into a window opening in the ruined church, set with no 2 above no 1. Both stones appear to have been trimmed previously for re-use as building stones in the earlier medieval church. In 1947 the two stones were removed and presented to NMAS.
Present condition: worn and trimmed at the base.
Description
An imposing slab carved in relief on both broad faces and three narrow faces. Both broad faces are bordered by flat-band mouldings carved with square key pattern, within which is a narrow roll moulding, and roll moulding also otlines the cross on face A. This is a ringed cross with a square central panel and square armpits. The cross is filled with interlace formed of median-incised cords, while the ring contains more square key pattern. The base of the shaft is missing. Either side of the upper arm of the cross is a square panel filled with eight triangles (Allen’s pattern 995), and flanking the shaft are two panels of diagonal key pattern topped by a cabled roll moulding.
A cabled roll moulding also separates the two panels of ornament on face C. The upper panel encloses three frontal clerics with tonsured heads, who are wearing heavily draped robes. The central figure is slightly larger than his companions, and he carries a book in his right hand and some sort of handled object in his left hand. The figures on either side have pairs of cruciform brooches on their shoulders and each carries a book. The lower panel contains two creatures rearing up with elongated bodies crossing one another in such a way that both face outwards and their massive fanged jaws are clamped around the other’s tail. Stylised manes run along their backs and their lower bodies are outlined by an inner incised line, with a spiral joint at their rear legs.
Narrow faces B and D have single panels of median-incised interlace within plain flat-band borders, and the upper face E contains diagonal key pattern.
Date range: ninth or tenth century.
Primary references: Chalmers 1848, pl 22; ECMS pt 3, 255-6.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017.
Reference (1903)
No.1 is an upright cross-slab of Old Red Sandstone of nearly rectangular shape but expanding upwards, 2 feet 9 inches high by 1 foot 9 inches wide at the top and 1 foot 4 1/2 inches wide at the bottom, sculptured in relief on two faces thus-
Front.- The slab is surrounded by a border of square key-pattern No. 887, within which in the middle and extending the full length of the slab is a cross, not divided into panels, and ornamented with a six-cord plait having breaks in places.
Back.- The whole slab is surrounded by a border of square key-pattern and divided into two panels containing at the top, two ecclesiatics.
J R Allen and J Anderson 1903
