Rosemarkie Stone

Illustration from Angus J Beaton'sIllustrated 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

TheRosemarkie StoneorRosemarkie Cross,a Class IIPictish stone,is one of the major surviving examples ofPictishart in stone.

Discovery

Carved from fine-grainedsandstone,the Rosemarkie stone was found sometime prior to 1821 in the floor of the old church in the village ofRosemarkie.Rosemarkie was the probable site of a major Pictish monastery, on theBlack IsleofEaster Ross.When found, the stone was broken into two parts that have since been reconstructed.The reconstructed stone is now on display in Rosemarkie'sGroam House Museum.

Description

On the front side is an elaborately decorated cross, while on the reverse side are various common Pictish symbols, including threecrescents and v-rodsand adouble-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

• Rosemarkie sculpture fragments

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)

External links

• Am Baile