Inchyra Pictish slab
Last updated | 14/09/2010
Early medieval sculptured slab bearing incised Pictish symbols
and ogam inscriptions. The Inchyra stone was found in 1945, when
ploughing unearthed it as the cover stone of a grave in the
parkland of Inchyra House, Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire. It is
incised with several sets of Pictish symbols: a fish and a snake on
one side (incomplete because of damage to the stone) and a fish
with a double-disc on the other broad face. The latter side also
has the apparently unfinished symbols of a mirror and a tuning
fork.
In addition the stone bears four sets of inscriptions on the
narrow faces and one of the broad faces. These are in ogam, a form
of script using incised lines that originated in Ireland. The
inscriptions on the Inchyra stone are unintelligible but appear to
contain personal names.
