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Abercrombie Church, Abercromby 4
Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Site Name Abercrombie Church, Abercromby 4
Classification Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Chapel
Canmore ID 319284
Site Number NO50SW 1.04
NGR NO 52189 03433
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/319284
- Council Fife
- Parish St Monance
- Former Region Fife
- Former District North East Fife
- Former County Fife
Abercrombie 4, Fife, cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.66m, W 0.36m, D 0.13m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 52189 03433
Present location: at Abercrombie Church.
Evidence for discovery: recorded around 1850 by Stuart, re-used in the wall of the church. John Gifford attributes the creation of the north door using fragments of medieval gravestones to a reconstruction of 1597-1602, while the church was still in use as the parish church (1988, 86). This slab is set into the lower part of the inner face of the left-hand jamb (as seen from outside the church),
Present condition: very weathered.
Description
This is part of the side of what was probably a cross-slab, though only faces C and D are visible. Carved in relief on face C are a quadruped, a boar and a human figure within a roll-moulded frame. Face D bears traces of two panels, the upper containing interlace pattern.
Date: ninth century.
References: Stuart 1856, pl 125: ECMS pt 3, 349-50 (Abercromby); Gifford 1988.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
Reference (1903)
Abercromby No.4 is a fragment of an upright cross-slab (?) of sandstone, of irregular four-sided shape (broken round three edges), 2 feet 2 inches high by 1 foot 2 inches wide by 5 inches thick, sculptured in relief on two faces thus-
Front.-Part of a panel, containing a figure-subject consisting of two beasts and a man in vertical row, one below the other.
Right side.- Parts of two panels of defaced sculpture.
J R Allen and J Anderson 1903
