Meigle
Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Site Name Meigle
Classification Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)
Alternative Name(s) Meigle Museum; Meigle Stones; Meigle No. 21
Canmore ID 30851
Site Number NO24SE 25.21
NGR NO 2872 4459
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/30851
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Meigle
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
Meigle 21, Perthshire, cross-slab fragment
Measurements: H 0.84m, W 0.34m, D 0.12m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 2877 4439
Present location: lost.
Evidence for discovery: recorded by Stuart around 1850 as having been built into the west gable of a small extension to the church built perhaps in the 1840s.
Present condition: unknown.
Description
This appears to have been a rectangular cross-slab missing a small part of both the top and the bottom. It was carved in relief within a plain flat-band border with a cross with armpits closed by arcs, the cross outlined by roll moulding. The head of the cross was carved with heavy-handed diagonal key pattern, and the shaft with interlace formed of median-incised cords.
Date: ninth or tenth century.
References: Stuart 1856, 39, pl 127.17; ECMS pt 3, 329, 336.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019.
NO24SE 25.21 2872 4459.
Meigle No.21 is an upright cross-slab of sandstone of nearly rectangular shape, but fractured at the top, 2 feet six inches high by 1 foot 2 inches wide by from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches thick, sculptured in relief on one face thus-
Front - In the middle and extending the full length of the slab, a cross of shape No.102A not divided into panels, but containing two pieces of different ornament, namely (a) on the top and two side arms, a diagonal key-pattern very rudely executed; and (b) on the shaft, interlaced-work No. 571, with double- beaded bands.
This cross-slab was built into the walls of the old church at Meigle, before 1857, it is now in Meigle Museum.
J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; J Stuart 1856
Publication Account (1964)
Cross-slab: long-shafted cross decorated with circular interlace and key pattern.
S Cruden 1964.
Note (1990)
NO24SE 25.21 2872 4459.
This cross-slab, broken at the top and the foot, and now measuring 0.84m by 0.34m and 0.12m in thickness, bears a ringed cross decorated with irregular key-pattern on the head and double-beaded interlace on the shaft. The ring-segments are decorated with rope pattern.
Information from RCAHMS (JNGR) 1990.