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Gosmount, Cross-shaft
Cross (Early Medieval)
Site Name Gosmount, Cross-shaft
Classification Cross (Early Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Coldingham Hill; God's Mount; 'the Coldingham Stone'
Canmore ID 60176
Site Number NT96NW 8
NGR NT 901 663
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/60176
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Coldingham
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Berwickshire
- Former County Berwickshire
Coldingham, Gosmount, Berwickshire, cross-shaft fragment
Measurements: H 0.38m, W 0.36m, D 0.18m
Stone type: red sandstone
Place of discovery: NT c 903 659
Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (IB 44)
Evidence for discovery: found re-used in the wall of Gosmount farmhouse near Coldingham sometime before 1852.
Present condition: broken and worn.
Description
This is a small portion of a cross-shaft, carved in relief on all four faces within a plain flat band moulding and an inner roll moulding. Face A bears interlace with diagonal strands and faces B and D also bear interlace patterns. Face C shows parts of two intertwined animals with double incised lines on their bodies.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2016
NT96NW 8 901 663.
(NT 901 663) A fragment of a Class III cross-shaft of red sandstone, recently discovered in the wall of a farmhouse in a field called God's Mount, which is part of Coldingham Hill (name on OS 6" map, Berwickshire, 2nd ed., 1908) (J Stuart 1867) is now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS Accession No: IB 44). It measures 1ft 3ins in height by 1ft 2ins in width and 7ins in thickness, and is sculptured in relief on all four faces, thus:
Front - Part of a panel of interlaced work; Back - Part of a panel containing interlaced beasts, with double outline and pellets in the background as on some of the Mercian stones in England; Right Side - Interlaced work and a six-cord plait; Left Side - Interlaced work. Its original site is unknown.
J Stuart 1867; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1878 (Donations); J R Allen and J Anderson 1893; RCAHMS 1915.
God's (Gos) Mount may be identified with Kirk Hill, and so this stone may have come from the monastic site NT96NW 5.
Information from Mr R Weatherhead (Dunbar), 31 January 2003.
Publication Account (1915)
97. Sculptured Cross-shaft (fragment) from Coldingham.
This is a fragment of a cross-shaft of red sandstone measuring 1 foot 3 inches in height by 1 foot 2 inches in width and 7 inches in thickness, sculptured in relief on four faces, thus: Front - Part of a panel of interlaced work; Back - Part of a panel containing interlaced beasts, with double outline and pellets in the background as on some of the Mercian stones in England; Right side - Interlaced work and a six cord plait; Left side - Interlaced work. The stone was found in the wall of a farm-house in a field called ‘God's Mount’ (O.S. ‘Gosmount’), which is a part of Coldingham Hill in the vicinity of Coldingham Priory. It is now in the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh.
See Early Christ. Mon., pt. iii. p. 429 (illus.)
RCAHMS 1915
Sbc Note
Visibility: Not applicable. Site of a provenanced find recorded in documentary sources.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
