Rosemarkie Stone

The Rosemarkie Stone or Rosemarkie Cross, a Class II Pictish stone, is one of the major surviving examples of Pictish art in stone.

Illustration from Angus J Beaton's Illustrated Guide to Fortrose and Vicinity, with an appendix on the Antiquities of the Black Isle, published in Inverness in 1885.
Detail of crescent and v-rod showing reconstructed join between previously broken parts

Discovery

Carved from fine-grained sandstone, the Rosemarkie stone was found sometime prior to 1821 in the floor of the old church in the village of Rosemarkie. Rosemarkie was the probable site of a major Pictish monastery, on the Black Isle of Easter Ross. When found, the stone was broken into two parts that have since been reconstructed.[1] The reconstructed stone is now on display in Rosemarkie's Groam House Museum.[2]

Description

On the front side is an elaborately decorated cross, while on the reverse side are various common Pictish symbols, including three crescents and v-rods and a double-disc and Z-rod, as well as a smaller cross at the bottom. It is the only Pictish stone to bear three versions of the same symbol. The sides are also decorated with a number of interlace patterns.

See also

References
  1. "Rosemarkie, Church Place, Rosemarkie Parish Church, Cross Slab | Canmore". canmore.org.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  2. "Groam House Museum | OUR SCULPTURES". www.groamhouse.org.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2016.

Further reading
  • Fraser, Iain, Ritchie, J.N.G., et al., Pictish Symbol Stones: An Illustrated Gazetteer, (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, 1999)
  • Jones, Duncan, A Wee Guide to The Picts, (Musselburgh, 2003)
  • MacNamara, Ellen, The Pictish Stones of Easter Ross, (Tain, 2003)

57°35′29″N 4°6′48″W


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