Over Kirkhope

Over Kirkhope, Selkirkshire, carved pillar stone

Measurements: H 1.22m, W 0.33m, D 0.10m

Stone type: greywacke

Place of discovery: NT c 21 12

Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh.

Evidence for discovery: according to ECMS the slab was found on the site of an ancient chapel, but RCAHMS was told locally that it had been found re-used in a field wall.

Present condition: weathered.

Description

This natural pillar stone bears a crude human figure rendered by pecking. The figure has a large head with heavy facial features and short curly hair and is standing in a frontal position with bare feet turned to the right. The forearms are raised from the elbow, possibly in supplication. The figure is wearing a short tunic with a border at the bottom, and there is a deeply peched equal-armed cross on the chest. There is a circle with a central hollow touching the tunic on either side at the waist. Later additions include, top right, an incised panel containing the initials P P, possibly recut over earlier initials, with a small equal-armed cross below.

Date: tenth century?

References: ECMS pt 3, 431-2; RCAHMS 1967, no 65.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016

NT21SW 3 c. 21 12

Carved Stone, Over Kirkhope (Site). This stone was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1885, (Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1885) and is now preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities. It was described and illustrated by J R Allen and J Anderson (1903), but their statement that it "was found at the site of an ancient chapel at Over-Kirkhope" is incorrect, as Mrs G Nicol, who was born at Over Kirkhope, told the Commission's officers that it had been taken out of a drystone dyke close to the NE end of the shepherd's house, and a disturbance in the masonry marking its position could still be seen at the date of visit.

The original provenance of the stone is thus uncertain, but the former existence of both a chapel and a graveyard at Over Kirkhope (cf. RCAHMS 1957 Nos. 12 and 77*) points to its having come from somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood.

The stone is a roughly shaped pillar of greywacke, 4ft high by 13ins wide by 4ins thick. It is carved on one face, in pocked technique, with a human figure about 16ins high which is identifiable as an Orans (Information from C A R Radford). The head is disproportionately large, with the features crudely drawn in full face, and is crowned with curly hair, rudely indicated, filling a crescent-shaped space reaching to the ears, which are not shown. The hands are raised to the level of the shoulders, with the palms turned outwards. The body is clothed in a tunic reaching to the knees and girt with a belt at the level of the hips. The feet are bare and are shown in profile, turned to the right. There is a small cross on the breast, and on either side of the body a small circle with a dot in the centre; these circles are probably a confused reminiscence of the candlesticks that flank some of the Orans figures, e.g. that of Bessula in the Lateran (Cabrol and Leclercq).

What now resembles a phallus is largely due to a natural irregularity in the surface of the stone, which has been accentuated by a roughly scratched oblique line. Above the figure there is a small cross, together with a rectangular panel containing, probably, two pairs of initials, of which P P are now fully legible. All these additions have been made with a nail or knife, in contrast with the pocked work of the original figure.

The standing figure or Orans, dressed in a tunic and with arms uplifted, is of frequent occurrence in early Christian art. The Orans occurs alone or in groups, and in rare cases the same figure is found among sheep, which represent the Blessed in Paradise. The symbolism-the soul of the deceased, already in Paradise, praying for those left on earth-is explained both by the inscriptions and by the early liturgical texts (Cabrol and Leclercq). Orantes are rare in the North, but Nash Williams has illustrated a few from Wales (V E Nash-Williams 1950).

The figure from Over Kirkhope is very crude, and the treatment of the hair may be compared with poor Roman provincial work such as the barbarous head from Wallsend (Kendrick)

The cross on the breast is an indication of the beatified state of the person whom the stone commemorates.

The symbolism of the Orans belongs to the Early Church. The figure does not appear on Saxon monuments, and this form of it was obsolete by the date of the Augustinian mission. The Over Kirkhope slab, like the early inscriptions (cf. No. 174) and the newly (Selkirk 10 SE 2 - "Yarrow Stone") recorded cross at Ruthwell (C A R Radford 1951) must therefore be accepted as a relic of the British Church in the Lowlands and will date from the 5th or 6th century. Its discovery near an ancient church site in a remote upland valley inevitably suggests the gravestone of a hermit, whose prayers were desired by the neighbouring communities. We may recall Virgnous of Iona, who "post multos in subjectione inter fratres irreprehensibiliter expletos annos, alios duodecim in loco anachoretarum...vitam ducens anachoreticam, Christi victor miles, explevit" (Adamnan) ("...after many years of blameless life under the rule among the brethren, completed another twelve in the place of the anchorites leading the solitary life, a victorious soldier of Christ"). (No. 12 - Burial Ground (? Md.) - Selkirk 17 SW 3)

(No.77 - Old Village and Chapel Site - Selkirk 17 SW 1)

RCAHMS 1957, visited 1950.

No further information regarding the find-spot of this stone was discovered at Over Kirkhope. The dykes about the shepherd's house (NT 2134 1212) were examined for signs of the disturbance noted by RCAHMS but without success.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 3 July 1962.