22 April 2009: The Drosten Stone

This month St Vigeans Sculptured Stones Museum near Arbroath has reopened after undertaking conservation work on the stones and refurbishing the museum.

Over 1000 years ago the small village of St Vigeans was a powerful religious centre.  The 38 stones now housed in the museum would have once stood as monuments, boundary markers and gravestones conveying messages of the Christian faith.  Originally they stood in and around the site of a medieval monastery on the mound where the current St Vigeans Parish Church now stands.

One of the most striking stones on display is the Drosten Stone, a cross-slab dating from the 9th century.  Unusually inscribed in both Latin and Pictish and carved with an ornate cross, figures, and symbolic detail, it is an important part of a collection of some of the finest examples of Pictish art in Scotland.

To find out more about sculptured stones in Scotland please visit our online database Canmore.