This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.
We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?
If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.
Latitude: 57.6917 / 57°41'30"N
Longitude: -4.2142 / 4°12'51"W
OS Eastings: 268104
OS Northings: 869028
OS Grid: NH681690
Mapcode National: GBR H8ZD.6BM
Mapcode Global: WH4FB.7XGV
Entry Name: Clach a' Mheirlich, symbol stone
Scheduled Date: 18 May 1925
Last Amended: 10 October 1995
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM1675
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Crosses and carved stones: symbol stone; Prehistoric ritual and funerary: standing stone
Location: Rosskeen
County: Highland
Electoral Ward: Cromarty Firth
Traditional County: Ross-shire
The monument consists of a standing stone bearing Pictish symbols, standing approximately 60m N of the shore of the Cromarty Firth.
Clach a' Mheirlich, or 'The Thief's Stone', is a sandstone pillar approximately 2m high by 0.5m square, with Pictish symbols incised on the SE and SW sides. The SE side has a 'notched rectangle' symbol approximately one-third of the way up, and the SW side bears, about half way up, worn traces of a crescent symbol with, below, a symbol which could be either a pair of pincers or a "tuning fork". Clach a' Mheirlich is a Class I stone, and hence probably dates from between the 7th and 9th centuries AD.
Clach a'Mheirlich may be a prehistoric standing stone upon which Pictish symbols were later incised. It stands within a cultivated field and until the symbols were noticed by Dr Sutherland of Invergordon at some date before 1890 it was locally considered to be of prehistoric date. It thus seems possible that the stone stands in its original position, a possibility supported by the very weathered state of the symbols.
The area to be scheduled is a circle of 10m in diameter, centred on the stone, and includes the stone and an area in which traces of activities associated with the monument, in both historic and prehistoric times, may survive.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monument is of national importance as a standing stone, carved with Pictish symbols, the erection of which may date to prehistoric or early historic times. Its importance is greatly enhanced by the possibility that it remains on its original site. Study of it has the potential to contribute to our understanding of the social structure and beliefs within early historic and possibly prehistoric Scotland, and to our understanding of the function of these enigmatic monuments.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
The monument is recorded in the RCAHMS as NH 66 NE 12.
References:
Allen, J. R. (1903) Early Christian Monuments of Scotland.
RCAHMS (1994), Pictish Symbol Stones: A Handlist.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Other nearby scheduled monuments