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Cambusdoon
Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Site Name Cambusdoon
Classification Cross Slab (Early Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Alloway Kirk
Canmore ID 41618
Site Number NS31NW 5
NGR NS 3317 1806
NGR Description NS 3317 1806 and NS 3289 1823
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/41618
- Council South Ayrshire
- Parish Ayr
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Kyle And Carrick
- Former County Ayrshire
Cambusdoon, Ayeshire, cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.93m, W 0.44m tapering downwards to 0.33m, D 0.11m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NS 3317 1806
Evidence for discovery: found sometime prior to 1929 outside the graveyard wall west of the ruined Alloway Kirk in an area where dug graves were excavated in 2001. It was found resting on its original base but fractured, and the latter was left in the ground when the upper part was taken to the grounds of Cambusdoon School again prior to 1929. In 1978 it was taken into store at the Maclauren Art Gallery in Rozelle House before being transferred to Loudon House sometime before 1985.
Present location: Loudon House, Alloway.
Present condition: the top right corner of face A is missing and the base is broken. Face C appears to have been trimmed.
Description:
This wedge-shaped cross-slab is carved in low relief with a Maltese cross (type 8E) within an incised circle.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
References: Lacaille 1929, 348-50.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019
Though no pre-Reformation monuments survive in Alloway kirkyard, this Early Christian cross-slab was found nearby in a small coppice on Cambusdoon property, separated from the kirkyard by a wall. The lower part was firmly fixed in the ground, with the broken upper part resting on it. This upper part is now situated at NS 3289 1823, in the centre of a small lawn adjacent to Cambusdoon School. It measures 0.6m by 0.45m by 0.175m thick. The findspot, at NS 3317 1806, was pointed out by Mr Lennie (headmaster, Cambusdoon School), who remembered the slab being found.
A D Lacaille 1929
Field Visit (16 December 1955)
Nothing was known of the lower part of the slab and no trace of it was found. The thickness and irregularity of the back suggest that originally this monument had been a rude-back slab dressed down fairly evenly, possibly at a recent date, to serve in a building.
Visited by OS (JD) 16 December 1955
Field Visit (29 September 1980)
The cross-slab was removed from the old Cambusdoon School grounds some 18 months ago and it is now in store at the Maclauren Art Gallery, Rozelle House (NS 338 189). It is complete, but has been vandalised with incised graffiti. It is hoped to eventually place the slab at Alloway Church (Mr M Bailey, museum and gallery organiser, Maclauren Art Gallery). Its original site (NS 3317 1806) now falls in a landscaped private garden.
Revised at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (JRL) 29 September 1980
Field Visit (April 1985)
NS31NW 5 3317 1806 and 3289 1823.
(NS 3289 1823) Cross Slab (NR)
OS 1:10000 map (1981)
Field Visit (April 1985)
Cambusdoon, Cross-slab NS 3317 1806 NS31NW 5
The upper portion of a cross-slab, probably of Early Medieval date (8th to 12th century AD), found in a coppice 16m WNW of Alloway Kirk (no. 62), is now in the Loudoun Hall, Ayr. The slab is 0.93m long and 0.44m wide at the head (0.07m thick) tapering to 0.35m in width at the base (1.1 m thick). It is finely dressed, with rounded edges, and bears a Maltese cross in a sunk circular panel; the reverse is crudely hammer-dressed and suggests that it may have been intended to re-use the slab in a building.
RCAHMS 1985, visited April 1985.
(Lacaille 1929, 348-50; Dillon 1954, 78).
Archaeological Evaluation (February 2001)
NS 331 180. An archaeological evaluation was carried out in February 2001 of a proposed development area immediately to the W of Alloway Kirk, the ruined medieval parish church. The evaluation established the presence of human remains outside the W boundary wall of the kirkyard. Articulated burials in an extremely poor state of preservation were found extending for at least 12m beyond the wall, in the immediate vicinity of the alleged findspot of a cross-slab of 8th to 12th-century date (NMRS NS31NW 5). The burials were aligned NNE-SSW, noticeably different from that of the ruined kirk and perhaps indicating association with an earlier ecclesiastical structure on the site. The position of a railway tunnel, built beneath the site in the early 20th century and crossing it diagonally from SW to NE, was also established. In the western part of the area, the evaluation also found a large cut feature, probably a ditch, which contained burnt and organic material, including burnt bone, in its lower fills. Charcoal from near the base of the ditch produced a calibrated date of AD 610-770 (see radiocarbon report, 126). (GUARD 987).
Sponsor: J Pollock-Morris.
O Lelong 2001.
Note (2 July 2019)
The Cambusdoon Cross was moved in December 2007 to inside the Chancel of Alloway parish Church of Scotland. It sits against the north wall of the Chancel.
Information received by HES from a member of the public, July 2019 (SIH).
