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MHG39490 - Cross Slab, Creagan A'Bheannaich Chapel

Summary

No summary available.

Type and Period (1)

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Full Description

At Sandside House (NC 95 65) there is a stone with incised symbols which was found built into a stone dyke not far from Thigh a' Bheannaich, a name which suggests site of an ancient oratory or church. The stone is a rectangular sandstone block 2ft 5ins long, 9ins broad, and 8ins thick. On face is incised a small stemmed circle or orb, 4ins in diameter, containiing an equal- armed cross. The stem is 3.5ins long, 1ins broad where it joins the circle, and 1.5ns at base. Beneath, and occupying breadth of the stone is a plain circle with a diameter of 8ins.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

Shurrery, Caithness, cross-slab
Measurements: H 0.74m, W 0.23m, D 0.20m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: ND 0408 5783
Present location: Sandside House, against a wall in front of the house.
Evidence for discovery: found in the first decade of the 20th century built into a stone dyke near Shurrery and thought to have come from a chapel site at Tigh a’ Bheannaich, the slab was taken to Sandside House by 1910. Sometime later the date 1911 was cut at the base of the stone.
Present condition: good.
Description:
Finely pecked lines define a simple encircled cross set on a splayed shaft, and below there is a plain circle almost the entire width of the slab. Despite it being a perfect circle, there is no trace of a compass hole at the centre.
Date range: seventh or eighth century.
References: RCAHMS 1911, no 406; Blackie & Macaulay 1998: no 19.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016

See link below to HES Canmore record for photographs of the stone.

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred ND 0407 5782 (10m by 10m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	ND05NW
Civil Parish	REAY
Geographical Area	CAITHNESS

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