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MHG47322 - Carved stone, panel fragment, Rosemarkie 12 - Rosemarkie graveyard

Summary

This end panel fragment is carved in relief on one face with a ringed cross with circular armpits and a stepped base. It has a roll distinct moulding along its surviving edges. One of the most understated yet refined Pictish sculpted crosses found in Rosemarkie. A vertical groove on the reverse may indicate it's use as the end of a box-shrine or tomb. Found during mechanical excavation to lower the drainage pipes for Rosemarkie Church in 1990.

Type and Period (2)

Protected Status

Full Description

Fragment of a slab bearing, in low relief, a ring-headed cross, rising from a base of one step. The one intact arm terminates in a pair of miniature volutes (Groam House 1992.9).
MS/1785.

Rosemarkie 12, Ross & Cromarty, end-panel fragment
Measurements: H 0.47m, W 0.52m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NH 737 576
Present location: Groam House Museum, Rosemarkie (ROMGH.1992.9)
Evidence for discovery: found in the churchyard at Rosemarkie in 1990.
Present condition: broken top and bottom and worn.
Description
This fragment has a roll moulding along the vertical edges and is carved in relief with a ringed cross with circular armpits. The cross is set into a squared base, which tapers outwards slightly towards the base. The surviving terminal of the right-hand side-arms is finished with two spirals. On face C, behind the arm, is a groove, 25mm deep and 60 mm wide, which may have accommodated a side-panel of a composite box-shrine.
Date: eighth or ninth century.
References: Henderson & Henderson 2004, 207; Seright & Henderson 2013, 12.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017. <1>

Found in the churchyard in 1990, during mechanical excavation to lower the drainage pipes for Rosemarkie Church. The fragment is carved in relief with an equal-armed, ringed cross set in a slightly tapering base which meets a moulding that gently curves up towards the edge moulding. The cross has semicircular hollow arm-pits. The edge moulding expands into a pair of spirals at the point at which it passes the surviving transverse arm. The ring is carved in shallower relief than the cross. The slab is dressed so as to be slightly convex, the highest point being reached at the centre of the cross-head. Although the shape of the cross is parallelled in the collection of cross-marked slabs on Iona there are no close parallels for the distinction in relief between ring and cross-head, the treatment of the border, the convexity of the dressing or the concavity of the lower moulding. <2>

Sources/Archives (3)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 737 576 (6m by 6m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NH75NW

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

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External Links (1)