Kingoldrum

Kingoldrum 1 (St Medan), Angus, Pictish cross-slab

Measurements: H 0.61m, W 0.38m, D 0.08m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO 3342 5504

Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (IB 39)

Evidence for discovery: found in the walls of the medieval church when it was demolished in 1840.

Present condition: broken top and bottom and worn.

Description

This small cross-slab is carved in relief on both broad faces, and the top appears to have risen to an apex. Face A is edged with a flat-band moulding which expands on either side above the side-arm of the cross into the spiral joint of an animal’s foreleg, but the head of both animals is missing. A cross with rectangular terminals and square centre is carved in such a way that its side-arms extend across the flat-band border, and the cross itself has a flat-band moulding. It is entirely filled with coarse key pattern. On either side of the shaft are a pair of entwined and knotted serpentine creatures with ducks’ heads and fish tails. Their bodies have an incised median line, but the knots are not identical.

Face C displays a figure in a long robe sitting facing left on a chair which has a zoomorphic terminal to its back. The head of the figure is missing, but it faced a rectangular object subdivided into two unequal parts. Below are a mirror symbol, a decorated crescent, a step symbol filled with key pattern and a double-sided comb, and there is an animal facing left above the step symbol.

Date range: eighth or ninth century.

Primary references: Chalmers 1848, 14; ECMS pt 3, 226-7; Fraser 2008, no 64.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017.

Kingoldrum 2 (St Medan), Angus, Pictish cross-slab

Measurements: H 0.99m, W 0.61m, D 0.08m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO 3342 5504

Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (IB 40)

Evidence for discovery: found in the walls of the medieval church when it was demolished in 1840.

Present condition: broken and worn.

Description

The top and bottom sections of this slightly tapering slab are missing, and it must originally have been well over a metre high and carved in relief on both broad faces. Within a roll moulding on face A is a cross outlined by a roll moulding, with rounded armpits and rectangular terminals, the arms and shaft of which are filled with key pattern. The centre bears a roundel consisting of a triple-cord spiral. There were motifs carved above the side-arms but too little survives for identification.

Face C appears to have been divided into two panels by a broad flat-band moulding, with a barely discernible figure on a chair with a zoomorphic terminal to the back, facing right. There are faint traces of carving in the lower panel.

Date range: eighth or ninth century.

Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 257-8.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017.

Kingoldrum 3 (St Medan), Angus, cross-slab fragment

Measurements: H 0.23m, W 0.20m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO 3342 5504

Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (IB 41)

Evidence for discovery: found in the walls of the medieval church when it was demolished in 1840.

Present condition: broken but carving crisp.

Description

This appears to have been part of the upper portion of a tapering slab. Face A bears a Maltese cross carved in relief within a roundel. Face C displays the haloed head, torso and left arm of the crucified Christ, with a possible saltire to the right of the head.

Date range: tenth or eleventh century.

Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 258.

Desk-basded information compiled by A Ritchie 2017.