46-459: The Woodwrae Stone (alternatively the Woodwray Stone ) is a Class II Pictish Stone (c. 8th or 9th century) that was found in 1819 when the foundations of the old castle at Woodwrae, Angus, Scotland were cleared. It had been reused as a floor slab in the kitchen of the castle. Following its removal from the castle, it was donated to the collection of Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford House . It
92-417: A class II stone. The cross face formerly bore a lobed cross, which has been deliberately erased, although the borders, decorated with interlaced knotwork , keywork and divergent spiral work remain. Also remaining intact are the fantastic creatures in the four quadrants surrounding the cross, including a beast with human legs dangling from its mouth, a feature that exists on other Pictish cross slabs, including
138-458: A local bishop or abbot), approaching life-size, and carved in very high relief. The Irish tradition largely died out after the 12th century, until the 19th-century Celtic Revival , when the Celtic cross form saw a lasting revival for gravestones and memorials, usually just using ornamental decoration and inscriptions. These are now found across the world, often in contexts without any specific link to
184-456: A more typical estimate is "around thirty", or "around forty" according to Historic Scotland . These include geometric symbols, which have been assigned descriptive names by researchers such as: and outline representations of animals such as: Some are representations of everyday objects, such as the "mirror and comb" , which could have been used by high-status Picts. The symbols are almost always arranged in pairs or sets of pairs, often with
230-507: A suggested decipherment. Although earlier studies based on a contextual approach, postulating the identification of the pagan "pre-Christian Celtic Cult of the Archer Guardian", have suggested possible clausal meanings for symbol pairs. A selection of the Pictish symbols, showing the variation between individual examples. Each group is classified as a single type by most researchers. Only
276-758: A time when Norse settlers appeared in the British Isles and met a Christian culture. A fragmentary cross has been discovered in Granhammar in Vintrosa parish in Närke , Sweden and testify to the English mission in the central Swedish provinces. The Swedish cross was very similar to a cross in Leek, Staffordshire , and may have been made by an English immigrant. In Norway the British tradition
322-434: Is essentially a single phenomenon, though there are certainly strong regional variations. Some crosses were erected just outside churches and monasteries; others at sites that may have marked boundaries or crossroads, or preceded churches. Whether they were used as " preaching crosses " at early dates is unclear, and many crosses have been moved to their present locations. They do not seem to have been used as grave-markers in
368-486: Is mostly ornamental rather than figures. The crosses often, though not always, feature a stone ring around the intersection, forming a Celtic cross ; this seems to be an innovation of Celtic Christianity , perhaps at Iona . Although the earliest example of this form has been found on fifth-seventh century Coptic textile. The term "high cross" is mainly used in Ireland and Scotland, but the tradition across Britain and Ireland
414-407: Is now clear that there was a considerable period when both Class I and II stones were being produced. Later Scottish stones merge into wider medieval British and European traditions. The purpose and meaning of the stones are only slightly understood, and the various theories proposed for the early Class I symbol stones, those that are considered to mostly pre-date the spread of Christianity to
460-510: Is now on display at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh . Woodwrae castle occupied a position 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of Aberlemno , Angus grid reference NO51855663 , now occupied by Woodwrae farm. The stone was used as a floor slab at the castle and was removed in 1819 to the collection of Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford House grid reference NT506342 where it resided until it
506-470: The Bewcastle Cross . The earliest 8th- or 9th-century Irish crosses had only ornament, including interlace and round bosses, but from the 9th and 10th century, figurative images appear, sometimes just a figure of Christ crucified in the centre, but in the largest 10th century examples large numbers of figures over much of the surface. Some late Irish examples have fewer figures (often Christ accompanied by
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#1733094205143552-607: The Carndonagh stones in Carndonagh , Donegal , which appear to be erected by missionaries from Iona . fleeing the Viking raiders, "giving Iona a critical role in the formation of ringed crosses". The round bosses seen on early crosses probably derive from Pictish stones. High crosses may exist from the 7th century in Northumbria , which then included much of south-east Scotland, and Ireland, though Irish dates are being moved later. However
598-497: The Northern Isles . Simple or early forms of the symbols are carved on the walls of coastal caves at East Wemyss , Fife and Covesea , Moray . It is therefore thought likely that they were represented in other more perishable forms that have not survived in the archaeological record, perhaps including clothing and tattoos . Some symbols appear across the whole geographical range of the stones while, for example, six stones with
644-511: The Reformation , and typically only sections of the shaft remain. The ring initially served to strengthen the head and the arms of the high cross, but it soon became a decorative feature as well. The high crosses were status symbols, either for a monastery or for a sponsor or patron, and possibly preaching crosses , and may have had other functions. Some have inscriptions recording the donor who commissioned them, like Muiredach's High Cross and
690-621: The Viking invasions, the settled Norse population of the Danelaw adopted the form, and a number of crosses combine Christian imagery with pagan Norse myths , which the Church seems to have tolerated, and adopted at least as metaphors for the period when conversion was bedding down. The Gosforth Cross , a very rare almost-complete cross in England, is an example. By the 10th century such Anglo-Norse crosses were
736-467: The 6th to 9th century, a period during which the Picts became Christianized. The earlier stones have no parallels from the rest of the British Isles, but the later forms are variations within a wider Insular tradition of monumental stones such as high crosses . About 350 objects classified as Pictish stones have survived, the earlier examples of which holding by far the greatest number of surviving examples of
782-606: The Celtic areas of Wales , Devon, Brittany and Cornwall , where ogham inscriptions also indicate an Irish presence, and some examples can be found on Continental Europe, particularly where the style was taken by Insular missionaries. Most Irish High crosses have the distinctive shape of the ringed Celtic cross , and they are generally larger and more massive, and feature more figural decoration than those elsewhere. They have probably more often survived as well; most recorded crosses in Britain were destroyed or damaged by iconoclasm after
828-528: The Dunfallandy Stone, as well as Irish High crosses . The reverse face has suffered considerable mutilation. It is divided into three sections. The upper section bears a horseman, a Pictish double disc symbol and a step symbol. The lower two thirds of the face holds a second horseman and a variety of other animals, including a bull. Woodwrae castle was located approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of Aberlemno , Angus . This close proximity, and
874-638: The Early Medieval period, have continued to be erected and replaced until modern times. In Pictish Scotland the cross-slab, a flat stone with a cross in relief or incised on an essentially rectangular stone, developed as a hybrid form of the Pictish stone and the high cross. The cross is normally only on one side of the stone and the remaining areas of the stone may be covered with interlace or other decoration. These are usually distinguished from true high crosses. The tradition of raising high crosses appeared at
920-667: The Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland . Three stones with Pictish symbols are known outside areas normally recognised as Pictish: in Dunadd , Argyll ; Trusty's Hill in Dumfries and Galloway ; and Edinburgh in Lothian . All three are located at major royal power centres. Two Pictish Class I stones are known to have been removed from Scotland. These are Burghead 5 from Burghead Fort in Moray , showing
966-653: The Insular Celts or Britain. Anglo-Saxon crosses were typically more slender, and often nearly square in section, though when, as with the Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross , they were geographically close to areas of the Celtic Church, they seem to have been larger, perhaps to meet local expectations, and the two 9th century Mercian Sandbach Crosses are the largest up to that period from anywhere. The heads tend to be smaller and usually not Celtic crosses, although
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#17330942051431012-657: The North East of the country in lowland areas, the Pictish heartland. During the period when the stones were being created, Christianity was spreading through Scotland from the west and the south, through the kingdoms of Dál Riata , which included parts of Ireland , and the extension into modern Scotland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Bernicia and Northumbria . Areas that show particular concentrations include Strathtay , Strathmore , coastal Angus , Fife , Strathdee , Garioch , Moray , Strathspey , Caithness , Easter Ross ,
1058-400: The Picts, are essentially speculative. Many later Christian stones from Class II and Class III fall more easily into recognisable categories such as gravestones. The earlier symbol stones may have served as personal memorials or territorial markers, with symbols for individual names, clans , lineages or kindreds, although there are several other theories, and proposed explanations of
1104-401: The bulk of the production in England, as the high cross seems to have been abandoned further south, although the simple and practical Dartmoor crosses , no doubt an essential aid to navigating Dartmoor , appear to have continued to be made for centuries after. Given the tough granite used, decoration is mostly slight and they are hard to date confidently. Market crosses , many once dating to
1150-586: The dates assigned to most of the early crosses surviving in good condition, whether at Ruthwell and Bewcastle, the Western Ossory group in Ireland, Iona or the Kildalton Cross on Islay , have all shown a tendency to converge on the period around or slightly before 800, despite the differences between the Northumbrian and Celtic types. The high cross later spread to the rest of the British Isles, including
1196-731: The early 21st century, Irish sculptor Brendan McGloin was commissioned by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Portland to handcraft a full size replica of the Clonmacnoise Cross of the Scriptures. The 13-foot, 5 tonne sandstone cross was completed in 2007 and shipped from Donegal to Portland, Oregon , where it will stand as a Famine memorial. In 2016, a high cross was erected outside Wakefield Cathedral , West Yorkshire, England, carved from stone quarried in Holmfirth and carved by Celia Kilner. This
1242-568: The early medieval period. In the 19th century Celtic Revival Celtic crosses, with decoration in a form of insular style, became very popular as gravestones and memorials, and are now found in many parts of the world. Unlike the Irish originals, the decoration usually does not include figures. High crosses are the primary surviving monumental works of Insular art , and the largest number in Britain survive from areas that remained under Celtic Christianity until relatively late. No examples, or traces, of
1288-641: The effects of weathering the reliefs, in particular scenes crowded with small figures, are often now rather indistinct and hard to read. The earlier crosses were typically up to about two metres or eight feet high, but in Ireland examples up to three times higher appear later, retaining thick massive proportions, giving large surface areas for carving. The tallest of the Irish crosses is the so-called Tall Cross at Monasterboice, County Louth. It stands at seven metres or twenty-two feet high. Anglo-Saxon examples mostly remained slender in comparison, but could be large; except in earlier Northumbrian examples their decoration
1334-608: The figure of a bull, now in the British Museum , and the Crosskirk stone ( Caithness ), presented to the King of Denmark in the 19th century, but whose location is currently unknown. High cross A high cross or standing cross ( Irish : cros ard / ardchros , Scottish Gaelic : crois àrd / àrd-chrois , Welsh : croes uchel / croes eglwysig ) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There
1380-415: The form first developed in Ireland or Britain. Their relief decoration is a mixture of religious figures and sections of decoration such as knotwork , interlace and in Britain vine-scrolls , all in the styles also found in insular art in other media such as illuminated manuscripts and metalwork. They were probably normally painted, perhaps over a modelled layer of plaster; with the loss of paint and
1426-484: The geometric and object types are represented here, not the animal group. Only a few stones still stand at their original sites; most have been moved to museums or other protected sites. Some of the more notable individual examples and collections are listed below (Note that listing is no guarantee of unrestricted access, since some lie on private land). Pictish Symbol stones have been found throughout Scotland, although their original locations are concentrated largely in
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1472-452: The grounds that the non-uniform distribution of symbols – taken to be evidence of writing – is little different from non-linguistic non-uniform distributions (such as die rolls), and that the Exeter team are using a definition of writing broader than that used by linguists. To date, even those who propose that the symbols should be considered "writing" from this mathematical approach do not have
1518-562: The majority of cross-heads have not survived at all. Carved figures in these large examples are much larger and carved in deeper relief than the Irish equivalents with similar dates – only some very late Irish crosses show equally large figures. Anglo-Saxon decoration often combines panels of vine-leaf scrolls with others of interlace, although the placement and effect from a distance is similar to Celtic examples. Smaller examples may have only had such decoration, and inscriptions, which are much more common on Anglo-Saxon than Irish crosses. After
1564-462: The meanings of the symbols. Class I and II stones contain symbols from a recognisable set of standard ideograms , many unique to Pictish art, which are known as the Pictish symbols. The exact number of distinct Pictish symbols is uncertain, as there is some debate as to what constitutes a Pictish symbol, and whether some varied forms should be counted together or separately. The more inclusive estimates are in excess of sixty different symbols, but
1610-472: The most famous are: From the 19th century, many large modern versions have been erected for various functions, and smaller Celtic crosses have become popular for individual grave monuments, usually featuring only abstract ornament, usually interlace . In 1887, the Rev. William Slater Calverley commissioned a replica life-sized copy of Gosforth cross and had it erected in the churchyard at Aspatria, Cumbria.[3] In
1656-482: The mysterious symbols, which have long intrigued scholars. In The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland (1903) J Romilly Allen and Joseph Anderson first classified Pictish stones into three groups. Critics have noted weaknesses in this system but it is widely known and still used in the field. In particular, the classification may be misleading for the many incomplete stones. Allen and Anderson regarded their classes as coming from distinct periods in sequence, but it
1702-656: The object type, such as the mirror and comb, below the others, and the animals are generally found only in combination with the abstract types. Hence some think they could represent names, lineage, or kinships, such as the clans of two parents, analogous to the Japanese mon . According to Anthony Jackson the symbol pairs represent matrilineal marriage alliances. A small number of Pictish stones have been found associated with burials, but most are not in their original locations. Some later stones may also have marked tribal or lineage territories. Some were re-used for other purposes, such as
1748-420: The putative earlier forms in wood or with metal attachments have survived; the decorative repertoire of early crosses certainly borrows from that of metalwork, but the same is true of Insular illuminated manuscripts. Saint Adomnán , Abbot of Iona who died in 704, mentions similar free standing ringed wooden crosses, later replaced by stone versions. Perhaps the earliest surviving free-standing stone crosses are
1794-628: The similarity with the Class II slabs at Aberlemno has long been noted and it has been suggested that the stone originated there. Historian Ross Trench-Jellicoe has postulated, based on similarity of design and execution, an Aberlemno School of Pictish Sculpture, originating from Iona . Stones in the Aberlemno School include Aberlemno 2 (the Kirkyard Stone), Aberlemno 3 , Menmuir 1, Kirriemuir 1 and Monifieth 2 . To this list, Lloyd Laing has added
1840-502: The single symbol of a bull found at Burghead Fort suggest that this represented the place itself, or its owners, despite other examples appearing elsewhere. A team from Exeter University, using mathematical analysis, have concluded that the symbols in the Pictish image stones "exhibit the characteristics of written languages" (as opposed to "random or sematographic (heraldic) characters"). The Exeter analysts' claim has been criticized by linguists Mark Liberman and Richard Sproat on
1886-624: The stones of Eassie , Rossie Priory, Glamis 1 and Glamis 2 . Pictish Stones A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele , generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. A few have ogham inscriptions . Located in Scotland , mostly north of the Clyde - Forth line and on the Eastern side of the country, these stones are the most visible remaining evidence of the Picts and are thought to date from
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1932-466: The two Congash Stones near Grantown-on-Spey , now placed as portal stones for an old graveyard. The shaft of an old cross is lying in the field. Another Pictish stone, the Dunachton Stone near Kincraig , was later used as a door lintel in a barn. This was discovered when the building was dismantled in 1870. The stone was re-erected in the field. Recently it fell, after being photographed in 2007, but
1978-530: Was a unique Early Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone crosses, usually outdoors. These probably developed from earlier traditions using wood, perhaps with metalwork attachments, and earlier pagan Celtic memorial stones; the Pictish stones of Scotland may also have influenced the form. The earliest surviving examples seem to come from the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria , which had been converted to Christianity by Irish missionaries; it remains unclear whether
2024-488: Was donated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1924. The stone is a cross-slab 1.75 metres (5 ft 9 in) high and 1.02 metres (3 ft 4 in) wide, tapering to 0.84 metres (2 ft 9 in) at the top, and is 12.5 centimetres (4.9 in) thick. The slab is carved on both faces in relief and, as it bears Pictish symbols, it falls into John Romilly Allen and Joseph Anderson's classification system as
2070-568: Was more widely accepted and some 60 stone crosses are known from the country, but only four of them can be safely dated to the Viking Age thanks to runic inscriptions on the crosses. Many of the crosses have probably been raised on pagan grave fields when the family was baptised. Later, they were moved to cemeteries. The high cross tradition also probably helped increase the popularity of raising runestones (often with engraved crosses) in Sweden. Amongst
2116-565: Was re-erected again a few years later by the owner of Dunachton Lodge. The symbols are found on some of the extremely rare survivals of Pictish jewellery, such as the pair of silver plaques from the Norrie's Law hoard found in Fife in the early 19th century, and the Whitecleuch Chain . The symbols are also sometimes found on other movable objects like small stone discs and bones mostly from
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