BRECBANNOCH. Between the years 1204 and 1211, King William the Lion granted to the monks of Arbroath “custodiam de Brechbennoche,” and “cum predicta Brachbennoche terram de Forglint datam Deo et sancto Columbe et le Brachbennache,” on the tenure “faciendo inde servicium quod michi in exercitu debetur de terra ilia cum predicta Brachbennache.” This grant is recited in […]
Tag Archives: Pictish Art
Dunnicaer Sea Stack
The siege of Dún Foither. Annals of Ulster, U681/U694. From the BBC: Archaeologists have uncovered a “very significant” Pictish fort after scaling a remote sea stack off the coast of Aberdeenshire. The team from the University of Aberdeen believe the ancient remains could be one of many along the coast south of Stonehaven. It is the […]
St. Ninian’s Isle Treasure
The St. Ninian’s Isle Treasure, dating from approximately A.D. 800, is the finest surviving collection of Scottish silver from the period. The hoard was discovered in July 1958, in the ruins of a twelfth century chapel on St. Ninian’s isle, a land-tied island connected to the southwestern coast of the Mainland, Shetland. The metalwork hoard […]
Nigg Stone Restored
In April of 2013, restoration work on the Nigg Stone, an incomplete Class II Pictish cross-slab, perhaps dating to the end of the 8th century, was completed in Edinburgh, and the stone returned to stand in a room at the west end of the parish church of Nigg, Easter Ross. The cross-slab, one of the finest surviving […]
Dunadd
Originally occupied in the Iron Age, the site later became a seat of the kings of Dál Riata. It is known for its stone carvings below the upper enclosure, including the imprint of a foot and a basin thought to have formed part of Dál Riata’s coronation ritual. On the same flat outcrop of rock is an incised boar in Pictish style, and an inscription […]
Hilton of Cadboll Stone
Mysterious Scottish Petrospheres
Carved Stone Balls are petrospheres, usually round and rarely oval. They have from 3 to 160 (but usually six) protruding knobs on the surface. Their size is fairly uniform at around 2.75 inches or 7 cm across, they date from the late Neolithic to possibly as late as the Iron Age, and are mainly found in Scotland, but also elsewhere in […]