Turriff Manse, Pictish Symbol Stone

Turriff Manse, Aberdeenshire, Pictish symbol stone fragment

Measurements: H 0.47m, W 0.24m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NJ 7230 4991

Present location: built into a low wall just east of St Ninian’s Church at NJ 7234 5008.

Evidence for discovery: since it was first recognised in the 1870s in the garden wall of St Ninian’s manse in Turiff, this slab has been moved at least twice, once within the manse grounds in the twentieth century and in the early twenty-first century to St Ninian’s Church, to the north-east of the manse. It may have come originally from St Congan’s kirkyard to the south-west of the manse.

Present condition: severely trimmed and there is damage to the carved face.

Description

This fragment is a small part of an incised symbol stone. All that survives of its carving is part of the left-hand side of a crescent and V-rod.

Date: seventh century.

References: ECMS pt 3, 187; Fraser 2008, no 48.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017

NJ74NW 20 7230 4991

An incised stone of yellowish colour is built into the east wall of the manse gardens.

A Jervise 1875-9.

(NJ 7229 4962). There is a symbol stone built into the outside of the wall at the manse garden of Turiff. It is a slab of sandstone 1' 8" long by 10" wide and is incised on one face only, with part of the crescent and v-shaped rod symbol.

J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; J Ritchie 1915.