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MHG34337 - Carved stone fragment, Rosemarkie No.15 - High Street, Rosemarkie

Summary

This much-weathered small fragment is carved with part of an interlace design adjacent to a border. Discovered in a rockery in High Street, Rosemarkie in 1998.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

Found in a garden near Rosemarkie Church. The fragment (175 x 158 x 80mm) is carved on one face with a section of interlace adjacent to a border. The border lies along what may be an original edge. Pink sandstone.
Sponsor: Groam House Museum.
S Seright, H Fearn and I B Henderson 1998.

Rosemarkie 15, Ross & Cromarty, carved fragment
Measurements: H 0.31m, W 0.30m, D 0.11m
Stone type: pink sandstone
Place of discovery: NH 737 576
Present location: Groam House Museum, Rosemarkie (ROMGH.1998)
Evidence for discovery: found in a garden at Rosemarkie in 1994.
Present condition: broken and worn.
Description:
This small fragment is carved with a roll-moulded border and part of an interlace design.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
References: Seright & Henderson 2013, 10.
Early Medieval Carved Stones Project, A Ritchie 2017. <1>

This fragment was found in a rockery in High Street, Rosemarkie in 1998. Prior to the building of a new manse in Rosemarkie in 1756, the minister lived in a property on this site. It would have been appropriate for the local grave-digger to present the minister with any 'antiquity' found and this may account for these four fragments recently discovered. The fragment is carved on one face with a section of interlace adjacent to a border. The interlace is single-strand, the design, possibly circular in type, creating a spandrel at the edge containing a loose strand of interlace. The space between the two main carved strands of interlace at its narrowest point is 8 mm. The profile of the strands is sharply raised and the carving is of the same general appearance as that on the symbol-bearing cross-slab. The border lies along what may be an original edge. The border measures 36 mm in all. Its inner edge, 10 mm broad, is raised. The groove between the borders measures 6 mm. The measurements of the border are very similar to those of the symbol-bearing cross-slab although the lack of carving along its finished edge is intriguing (see MHG8831). <2>

Note; Precise find spot not known so indicative find area only (T.Blackie 3/3/2021).

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 7363 5760 (4m by 4m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NH75NW
Geographical Area	ROSS AND CROMARTY
Civil Parish	ROSEMARKIE

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