Taexalia

wild.life

Stones of Note

Wolf Stone Inverness Museum

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery is a treasure trove of heritage. The displays are presented in an accessible and interesting way, which made us wish we had a little more time. I did have time to indulge in making colourful rubbings of the replicas of the Pictish Art which formed my favourite part of the exhibition.

Above is the Wolf Stone which is an incised Class I Pictish Stone. This wonderful throwback to our ancestors of 2000 years ago was found embedded in a wall in 1903. It's hard for me to imagine how someone could have just broken up a piece of art to build a wall and it makes me wonder how much of our artistic heritage has been disappeared this way.

Poolewe Stone Pictish Grave Marker

Another Pictish find lies in Poolewe Cemetary, overlooking the peaceful vista of Loch Ewe. This is also a Class I Pictish Symbol Stone with only a feint indentation of the Crescent and V Rod carving.

This is the other side of the argument over whether these stones should be left in-situ, or moved to museums and preserved. Perhaps it is as it should be that the totems of our landscape are left to weather in the place where someone felt a need to mark something or someone's passing.

Poolewe Stone Pictish Grave Marker detail

Poolewe Cemetary is full of interesting stones and it marks the story of the community from Pictish times to the modern day. Another old stone is this cup-stone. I'm sure it has a name but I'll have to look it up... Anyway, it's legend is that it is a healing stone and the waters in the bowl are said to heal warts. I wonder who hollowed out the bowl and placed this stone in the rugged landscape... what ceremonies took place here...

Poolewe Healing Stone