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Monifieth
Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Monifieth
Classification Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Alternative Name(s) Monifieth, St Regulus' Church
Canmore ID 33409
Site Number NO43SE 25.02
NGR NO 4953 3235
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/33409
- Council Angus
- Parish Monifieth (Angus)
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District City Of Dundee
- Former County Angus
Monifieth 2 (St Regulus), Angus, cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.46m, W 0.31m, D 0.09m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 4953 3235
Present location: National Museums Scotland (X.IB. 27)
Evidence for discovery: discovered in the foundations of the medieval church when it was demolished in 1812, and built into the wall of the new church. It was given to NMAS in 1871.
Present condition: the top is damaged and is missing one corner, and the bottom edge has been trimmed.
Description
Carved in relief, face A bears a cross outlined by roll moulding with squared terminals and a square centre to the head. The central panel is filled with triangular interlace and the side-arms with knotwork, while the upper and lower arms contain spiral work, and the top of the shaft is filled with key pattern. The background to the cross is plain.
Face C has a wide flat-band moulding along the two vertical edges, which becomes a bird-headed creature in profile on either side at the top, each with a foreleg meeting the tip of its beak, and their heads just touching. Beneath them on the left is a goggle-eyed monster and on the right a beast’s head symbol. A roll moulding separates them from the panel below, which is subdivided vertically by roll moulding. In the left-hand panel is a robed or winged figure with an elaborate hairstyle or a halo, and holding a disc in the left hand. In the right-hand panel is an ornamented crescent symbol with a V-rod behind it.
Date range: eighth or ninth century.
Primary references: Neish 1872, 73; ECMS pt 3, 229-30; Fraser 2008, no 66.2.
Desk-based information cmpiled by A Ritchie 2018
External Reference (1980)
NO43SE 25.2 4953 3235.
No. 2 An upright cross-slab, measures 0.45m x 0.3m x 0.08m. Front - interlace cross. Back - bird-headed monsters, a crouching reptile and a deers head, above a cloaked figure and the crescent with V-rod symbol. This cross-slab is in the RMS(NMAS) Acc.no. IB 27.
Information from R Jones 1980.
Reference (1997)
Two Class II symbol stones:
Monifieth 1: Cross on face with on the reverse a double-disc above a comb and double-disc and Z-rod.
Monifieth 2: On the reverse a female figure with crescent and V-rod and deer's head above.
A Mack 1997.
