Rosemarkie Stone

The Rosemarkie Stone or Rosemarkie Cross, a Class II Pictish stone, is one of the major surviving examples of Pictish art in stone.

Illustration from Angus J Beaton's Illustrated Guide to Fortrose and Vicinity, with an appendix on the Antiquities of the Black Isle, published in Inverness in 1885.

Detail of crescent and v-rod showing reconstructed join between previously broken parts

Carved from fine-grained sandstone, the Rosemarkie stone was found sometime prior to 1821 in the floor of the old church in the village of Rosemarkie. Rosemarkie was the probable site of a major Pictish monastery, on the Black Isle of Easter Ross. When found, the stone was broken into two parts that have since been reconstructed.[1] The reconstructed stone is now on display in Rosemarkie's Groam House Museum.[2]

On the front side is an elaborately decorated cross, while on the reverse side are various common Pictish symbols, including three crescents and v-rods and a double-disc and Z-rod, as well as a smaller cross at the bottom. It is the only Pictish stone to bear three versions of the same symbol. The sides are also decorated with a number of interlace patterns.