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Latitude: 56.9064 / 56°54'23"N
Longitude: -2.8482 / 2°50'53"W
OS Eastings: 348444
OS Northings: 779772
OS Grid: NO484797
Mapcode National: GBR WN.LYZM
Mapcode Global: WH7P8.6NZV
Entry Name: Tarfside, cross-incised stone 650m W of St Drostan
Scheduled Date: 29 September 1936
Last Amended: 31 March 2015
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM160
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Crosses and carved stones: cross-incised stone
Location: Lochlee
County: Angus
Electoral Ward: Brechin and Edzell
Traditional County: Angus
The monument is a cross-incised stone, dating probably to sometime between AD 500 and 1000. The stone is a rough boulder of whinstone measuring about 0.8m by 0.5m by 0.4m. Lines have been incised on its N face to form broad channels outlining a simple Latin cross. The stone leans towards the S at an angle of about 40 degrees to the vertical. The cross-incised stone stands 240m above sea level, just S of a track that leads W from Tarfside across SE-facing moorland.
The scheduled area comprises the stone and its footprint, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The scheduling excludes a group of quartz pebbles placed on the ground on the S side of the stone. The monument was first scheduled in 1936, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present scheduling rectifies this.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monument is of national importance because of its potential to make a significant addition to our knowledge of the past, particularly our appreciation and understanding of early ecclesiastical sculpture and the development of Christianity. It has the potential to further our understanding of how such stone carvings were made, their functions, and their role in contemporary religious practices. The cross retains much of its original form, and there is potential to study the location and form of this cross with others across Scotland, and to study its relationship with other broadly contemporary places of worship to enhance understanding of the origins, development and organisation of the early church in Scotland. The loss of this monument would impede our ability to understand early Christian ecclesiastical sculpture and stone carvings and the development of Christianity in eastern Scotland.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
Other Information
RCAHMS record the monument as NO47NE 1. The Angus Sites and Monuments Record reference is NO47NE0001.
ReferencesJervise, A 1853, 'The history and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns, with notices of Alyth and Meigle', Edinburgh.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
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