PLATE X. No. 1. THE Stone at Kinnellar is in the churchyard of the Parish, which was the site of a circle of standing stones, several of which of great size and weight, though fallen, yet remain above ground, and others have sunk in the earth, and it has been stated, that the sculptured stone, either formed part of this circle, or was placed in connection therewith; but a correspondent of Dr. Hibbert states, that when it was found in 1801, it formed the foundation of the south-east corner of the old Church. He adds, "Dr. Mitchell had the marks revised, and I think, made more perfect than in the above copy I took when it was first seen, for I preached there the first Sabbath after this Stone was found." A comparision of the drawing here referred to, with that in the present volume, enables me to state, that the stone has fortunately not suffered from the dangerous restoration of Dr. Mitchell. (Letter from the Rev. John Gerrard, South Ronaldshay, 29th September, 1831, among Dr. Hibbert's MSS.) It is of granite. Many cairns of stones seem to have been in this Parish, and several of them, as well as the remains of circles of stone yet remain." No. 2. THE wood of Crichie is on the northern boundary of the parish of Kintore, and nearer to the burgh of Inverury than to that of Kintore. This Parish formerly contained many cairns, and it formed a thanage in ancient times. The Castle of Hallforest, which is in this parish, was a hunting seat of our Scottish Kings; and the town of Kintore was constituted a Royal Burgh at an early period. The Stone at Crichie stands a short distance eastwards from an intrenched stone circle, which is fifty feet in diameter-surrounded by a moat, twenty feet wide and six deep-with two entrances of nine feet wide, immediately opposite to each other, being North and South. The Pillar is of granite; other sculptured stones have been found in this parish, of which Drawings will be found in the present work. The parish was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. As noticed in the Preface, various sepulchral deposits have been found on digging into this Circle. PLATE X I. NOTHING is known as to the precise original locality of the Stone at Deer, although it is very likely to have been near its present one. When I saw it a few years ago, it was placed at the end of a range of building, which formed part of the Cistercian Abbey of Deer, founded in 1218 by William Cumming, Earl of Buchan, but I have been informed that since that time all the remains of the Abbey have been removed. The cross is incised on the face of the pillar, which is a whinstone. There were, not many years ago, the remains of upwards of a dozen stone circles in the parish; also, not long ago, the ruins of a small village, commonly called by the country people Pights' or Pict's houses. It consisted of fifty or sixty mossy huts, from six to twelve feet square, irregularly huddled together; hence it got the name of the bourachs. The walls were built of stones of a small size, and clay : the floors were paved with stones. Two circular huts, containing some ashes, seem to have been corn kilns. PLATE XII. No. 1. THE Stone, now erected on a knoll within the policies of Park House, on the river Dee, was originally Statistical Account of Aberdeenshire, p. 114, Edin., 18-13. b Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. iii., p. 501, Edin. 1792. * Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xvi. pp. 481-2 Edin., 1795. placed on the west end of the "Keith's Moor," in the parish of Drumoak, not far from the spot where, it is said, that in times of baronial jurisdiction, the gallows stood. It was squared for being built into a wall, and thus partially destroyed, but was rescued in time to preserve the principal figures which had been cut on it. The parish of Drumoak, or, more properly, Dalmaok, was dedicated to St. Mazota virgin. Many tumuli still exist in different parts of the parish; and arrow heads are occasionally picked up." No. 2. THE Stone at Mill of Newton, in the united Parishes of Logie-in-Mar and Coldstone, is built into the wall of the farm steading at Mill of Newton. It originally stood on a rising ground called Tomachar, a little to the west of its present site. I had the ground dug into a few years ago, round the spot where the Stone had been placed, when it was found to be a natural hillock of gravel, without any trace of deposit. The parish of Logy was dedicated to St. Wolok. Many cairns occur in this parish; and on the farm of Cairnmore of Blelack has been discovered, under ground, part of a paved road of considerable width. Near it is a hollow, which is known by the name of the Pict's Howe. The Church of Coldstone, or "Codilstan," was granted to the Abbey of Lundoris by Isabel of Douglas, Countess of Mar and Garioch, in 1402. PLATE XIII. No. 1. THE Cross now placed on a knoll near Aboyne Castle, was originally situated on an eminence on the bank of Loch Kinord, which lies some miles to the west of Aboyne. It was removed to its present site by the Earl of Aboyne many years ago; but on the occasion of its first removal, it is said to have been miraculously transported to its old site on the banks of the Loch. It is to be remarked, however, that the same legend is attached to another stone in the parish, having a cross cut on its surface, which stands near the wall of St. Muchrieha; for it also is said to have been removed at some former time from its site near to the well, and to have been wondrously brought back by the saint. The pillar is of granite. The parish of Aboyne was dedicated to St. Theunan; there are here the remains of ancient habitations and roads, as well as of forts and cairns. No. 2. THE Stone in the churchyard of the parish of Tyrie was found many years ago in clearing out the foundation of the parish Church, which was of great antiquity. It formed a foundation stone in the north eastern corner of the building, and is composed of blue mica.a This parish was dedicated to St. Andrew. It contained many tumul, in some of which have been found cists, containing human bones. PLATE XIV. THE Stone at Mortlach is erected on a haugh on the banks of the Dullan, immediately below the height on which the old Church of Mortlach is built. It has been supposed, although without any probability, that the Stone was erected to commemorate a victory which our second Malcolm is said to have achieved over the Northmen at this place in the year 1010. An engraving of it appeared in the Archeologia, vol. xxii., plate 3, and an etching of it is given in Rhind's "Sketches of Moray," p. 129, Edin. 1839. In both cases, however, the bird which surmounts the serpent has been omitted. It indeed required the practised eye and touch of the a Statistical Account of Aberdeenshire, Edin., 1813, p. 888. Statistical Account of Aberdeenshire, p. 1072, Edin., 1843. Statistical Account of Aberdeenshire, p. 1059, Edin., 1843. 4 Ibid. p. 722. artist to detect its traces on the rough weather-beaten surface of the stone, but a close examination reveals the figure, exactly as it appears in the present plate. Mortlach, which was dedicated to St. Moloch, was the site of an ancient Monastery, and it was also the seat of the Bishops till the See was transferred to Aberdeen by David I. The Monastery was gifted to the Bishoprick." PLATE X V. No. 1. THE Stone at Inveravon lies in the churchyard of the parish, and is said to have been found under the foundation of the old church. This parish was dedicated to St. Peter. Numerous traces of stone circles are to be found in it, and rude stone coffins have occasionally been discovered.b No. 2. THE Stone at Arndilly is built into the wall of the Mansion House, and was taken from the wall of the old Church, which formerly occupied the same site as the present House. Arndilly now forms part of the parish of Boharm, but it appears in ancient times to have been a separate parish. The Church stood on an eminence overhanging the waters of the Spey, and its ruins were visible "till within the memory of man, when they were cleared away to make room for part of the offices." The Church of Arndilly, then called "Artendoll," was given to the See of Moray by William de Moravia, 1203-24.a PLATE XVI. It THE Elgin Pillar was discovered in 1823, when the streets of the Burgh were under repair, lying about two feet below the surface in a horizontal position, a little to the north-east of the old Church of St. Giles. Nothing whatever is known of its previous history. It is now preserved in the Cathedral. This pillar is evidently incomplete, a part having been broken off from one end of it. It is now six feet in length, two-and-ahalf in breadth, and a foot thick, composed of a reddish grey granite very like that of Aberdeenshire. will be remarked that the spectacle ornament and crescent are filled with ornament in this case, while the sceptre is mortised as it were into the connecting lines of the former, and passes under some of the lines of the latter. Elgin, about the beginning of the twelfth century, appears to have been a considerable town, with a royal fort.f PLATE XVII. THE Stone at Birnie (a granite boulder) is now placed at the west pillar of the northern entrance to the Churchyard of Birnie, three miles south of Elgin. At some former period it had been built into the low wall which surrounds the churchyard, but was removed some years ago, and erected on its present site. Birnie was the first seat of the Bishops of Moray, and the present church is of Norman architecture. In the Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis; Preface, p. xix. b New Statistical Account of Banffshire, pp. 132-3. • Ibid. p. 355, 4 Registrum Moraviense, p. 17. Ban. Club. e Rhind's Sketches of Moray, p. 130. New Statistical Account of Elginshire, p. 4. parish is a stone called the Bible Stone, from having an oblong figure resembling a book cut out on its surface; also the Cairn of Kilforman, and vestiges of trenches and encampments.a No. 2. UPPER Manbean is a small farm in the parish of Elgin, and about four miles north-west of the town of Elgin. The sculptured Stone there (a coarse Mica slate) stands about 200 or 300 yards to the northwest of the farmhouse. There is no tradition of its even having been on another site, nor is there any local history attached to it. PLATES XVIII.--XXI. THE Forres Pillar, commonly called "Sueno's Stone," is situated about half a mile to the east of Forres, in the PLATE XXII. THIS Pillar was found in digging out the foundations of the present Church of Dyke and Moy, and was claimed by some of the parishioners as a gravestone. It was put up in the village, in commemoration of Rodney's victory over the Count de Grasse, and, from that circumstance, received the name of Rodney's Cross. A few years ago it was removed to the Park of Brodie, where it now stands. All the figures on this Stone, including the elephant, are elaborately ornamented. PLATE XXIV. THIS Pillar, which is called the Prince's Tomb or Stone, is erected at Glenferness on the banks of the Find- horn. a New Statistical Account of Elginshire, p 86. b Rhind's Sketches of Moray, pp. 127-8. Manual of the Antiquities of Moray, pp. 58 59. Elgin, 1823. New Statistical Account of Elginshire, pp. 246-249, • New Statistical Account of Elginshire, p. 221. UorM Denmark, and both having come together across to this country, they were pursued and overtaken here, but rather than allow themselves to be taken, they rushed into the Findhorn and were drowned— the pillar being raised to mark their memory, at the spot where their bodies were taken out of the river. There are two elephants on this Stone, on one of which the interlacing knot work appears. PLATE XXV. great distance from each other, on the They are, perhaps, the most remarkA country tradition assigns to them THE Stone at Hilton of Cadboll is one of three which stood at no low coast of Ross-shire, on the north side of the Cromarty Firth. able in Scotland for their elaborate finish and varied representation. a common origin, as the memorials of three Danish Princes who were buried here.a The Stone at Hilton has, at some former period, been taken down and converted into a gravestone, and it now lies in a shed, the wall of which is believed to form part of an ancient chapel. For this purpose, one of the sides was smoothed, by erasing the ancient sculpture upon it, and the following inscription was substituted : -: The Stone is referred to by Cordiner in his Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scotland, pp. 65-66, London, 1780, and in his "Remarkable Ruins," London, 1788, in which last work it is engraved. It will be remarked that the "spectacle" ornament is here transferred into the border amid other ornamental tracery, while two unconnected circles take its usual place on the face of the Stone, near to the crescent, the whole being filled up with elaborate tracery. The figures on horseback have a conventional resemblance to those on some of the Forfarshire Stones. The two in the upper corner, on the right hand, seem to have been trumpeters. PLATES XXVI. & XXVII. THIS magnificent obelisk lies near the village of Shandwick, in the Parish of Nigg, about a mile westward from the Stone at Hilton, and a quarter of a mile from the sea-shore. In 1776, when the Stone was visited by Cordiner, it was surrounded at the base with large well cut flagstones, formed like steps.b It was unfortunately blown down within the last ten years, and, in consequence, broken into two pieces, as indicated in the drawing. It has been supposed that the figures on each side of the cross, immediately beneath the transverse bar, are intended to represent St. Andrew on his cross, but it may be doubted, whether they are not meant to represent angels with displayed wings, like those on the Stone at Eassie, Plate XCI. It is stated in the Statistical Account of the Parish, that the ground around the side of the Stone was for ages employed as a burying place, although not for the last fifty years. The writer adds, that, in Gaelic, the Stone is called "clach a charridh," or "the Stone of the burying ground," but the writer of the old Statistical Account calls it "clach a charraig," "the stone of the rock," an instance of the value of Gaelic etymologies. C The pillar is of freestone. The raised bosses or knobs on the face of the cross appear on many of the Irish monuments, and on St. Martin's Cross at Iona. The same sort of ornament was long continued on the Highland targets. |