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Balluderon, 'st Martins Stone'
Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Balluderon, 'st Martins Stone'
Classification Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Alternative Name(s) Balkello; Martin's Stone
Canmore ID 31864
Site Number NO33NE 2
NGR NO 3748 3758
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/31864
- Council Angus
- Parish Tealing
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District City Of Dundee
- Former County Angus
Balluderon, St Martin’s Stone, Angus, Pictish cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 2.0m, W 0.68m, D 0.17m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 3748 3758
Present location: in situ within a railed enclosure in a field.
Evidence for discovery: first recorded around 1832.
Present condition: weathered and missing its top portion.
Description
This is the lower part of a cross-slab, which is carved in relief with a flat-band edge and the base of a cross outlined by a roll moulding. The base contains a rider and horse facing left: the horse is trotting and its right foreleg extends into the frame moulding. The rider is sitting on a saddle cloth, beneath the cross-base on the right is another horse and rider in similar pose, and here the rider is clearly wearing a small circular shield. In front of him is a Pictish beast symbol, below which is a serpent and Z-rod symbol.
Date range: eighth or ninth century.
Primary references: Skene 1832, 15; ECMS pt 3, 215-16; Fraser 2008, no 55.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018
Reference (1845)
'Martin's Stone': a broken cross-slab standing within an iron fence, is as described and illustrated.
New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845.
Reference (1903)
Martin's Stone is an upright cross-slab (Class II) 4' high by 2'3" wide, sculptured in relief on one side.
J R Allen and J Anderson 1903.
Field Visit (1980)
Measuring 2m x 0.68m x 0.17m, it is of sandstone and is broken away at the top. On one face the lower end of a cross-shaft bearing a horseman, the elephant, serpent and 2-rod symbols and a second equestrian figure are carved in relief.
Visited by R Jones, 1980.
Reference (1997)
Class II symbol stone. On the east face are part of a cross with two mounted figures beside which is an elephant over a serpent and Z-rod.
A Mack 1997.
External Reference (7 December 1998)
The monument comprises a Pictish cross-slab dating to the second half of the 1st millennium AD. It stands, within a small railed enclosure, in an area of arable farmland, at around 150m OD and comprises a sandstone slab measuring about 2m high by about 0.7m wide and some 0.2m in thickness.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 7 December 1998.
