Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Auquhollie, Lang Stane
Ogham Inscribed Stone (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish), Standing Stone (Prehistoric)
Site Name Auquhollie, Lang Stane
Classification Ogham Inscribed Stone (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish), Standing Stone (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Ogham Stone
Canmore ID 37143
Site Number NO89SW 10
NGR NO 82326 90797
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37143
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Fetteresso
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Kincardine And Deeside
- Former County Kincardineshire
Auquhollie, Kincardineshire, ogham-inscribed Pictish symbol stone
Measurements: H 2.35m, W 0.66m max
Stone type: quartzose gneiss
Place of discovery: NO 82326 90797
Present location: in situ on a hillside near Nether Auquhollie farmhouse.
Evidence for discovery: the presence of an ogham inscription was noted in 1886, but the symbols are faint and were not accepted until 2005.
Present condition: good. The ogham letters show signs of having been recut in modern times.
Description
A tall natural pillar bears an ogham inscription running up one edge, without a stem line. And on an adjacent face there is incised a rectangle symbol with circles at three of the corners, above the faint remains of a circle.
Date range: sixth or seventh century.
Primary references: Forsyth 1966, 41-54.
Desk0based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019.
Field Visit (July 1965)
'Lang Steen' (its local name) is a natural rectangular monolith, 8 1/2ft high by 2 1/2ft by 1 1/2ft. On the NE face, about 2 1/2 ft from the top is a Pictish double-disc symbol with cross-bar measuring about 5 1/2 inches across. Below it are traces of another symbol involving circles. The SE angle bears a complete and well preserved Ogham inscription, reading 'VUO NO N (I) TEDOV'. 4ft 4ins long which when visited by Crawford for the OS in October 1939, had been recently cleaned. The stone is alleged to have been part of a stone circle but no sign of one could be seen in 1865. Diack 1925; Allen and Anderson 1903, iii, 203-4; Name Book, Kincardineshire, No. 10, p.93. The symbols are considerably weathered and are now almost obscured. No trace of a stone circle could be found.
Resurvey at 1/2500.
Visited by OS July 1965.
Field Visit (February 2005)
The alleged miniature double-disc and Z-rod symbol has been identified as possibly the handle of a mirror symbol.
Information from RCAHMS (JB), February 2005.
Desk Based Assessment
NO89SW 10 8232 9079.
This standing stone is situated on the NW side of a farmtrack 380m NW of Nether Auquhollie farmsteading. It measures 0.43m by 0.66m by 0.7m at the base and 2.35m in height, and bears an ogham inscription on its SE edge. There is no trace of a Pictish double-disc symbol which is alleged to have existed on the NE side of the stone. The stone is said to have been part of a circle which was removed before 1865, and the adjacent croft (now demolished) was called Langstanes.
Information from OS.
Name Book 1864; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; F C Diack 1925; RCAHMS 1984, visited November 1983.
