The Maiden Stone, also known as the Drumdurno Stone after the nearby farm, is a
Pictish standing stone near
Inverurie
Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and River Don, Aberdeenshire, Don, about north-west of Aberdeen.
Geography ...
in
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...
in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, probably dating to the 9th century AD.
Name
The name is derived from local legend, incorporating the most obvious mark of wear and tear on the stone: a triangular notch toward the top of the monument.
The legend states that the daughter of the Laird of
Balquhain made a bet with a stranger that she could bake a
bannock faster than he could build a road to the top of
Bennachie
Bennachie ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Beinn na Cìche'') is a range of hills in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.Whiteley, A.W.M. (Ed.) (1976). ''The Book of Bennachie''. The Bailies of Bennachie. . Mostly anecdotes and verse about the mountain and its surro ...
. The prize would be the maiden's hand. However, the stranger was the
Devil
A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...
and finished the road and claimed the forfeit. The maiden ran from the Devil and prayed to be saved. The legend finishes by saying that
God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
turned her to stone, but the notch is where the Devil grasped her shoulder as she ran.
Purpose
Based on the mixture of
Pictish
Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...
and
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
symbols on the stone it is most likely that the stone marks a preaching site during missionary trips to the Picts.
Description
The stone is red granite, standing 3.01m high (one of the tallest of all Pictish monuments, even though several centimetres have been lost at the top owing to weathering). It is a Class II Pictish monument (combining Christian, and pre-Christian Pictish, motifs), dating from the late 8th or early 9th century AD.
The west side has a ringed cross below a human figure between two "fish-monsters". Below the cross there is a square panel with a disc containing a Celtic spiral motif at its centre, surrounded by a key-patterned ring, with knotwork patterns infilling the corners. On the reverse, there are four panels enclosing: a large centaur below three very weathered figures (possibly two smaller wrestling centaurs and a dog); a "notched rectangle and Z-rod" symbol; a
Pictish Beast
The Pictish Beast (sometimes Pictish Dragon or Pictish Elephant) is a conventional representation of an animal, distinct to the early medieval culture of the Picts of Scotland. The great majority of surviving examples are on Pictish stones.
T ...
symbol, a mirror and a comb. There is a knotwork pattern on the narrow north edge and a keywork pattern on the south edge. A portion of the north edge is missing and the patterns are heavily eroded, particularly on the western face.
The human figure and "fish-monsters" may represent the Biblical story of
Jonah and the Whale
Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor prophets, ...
, with the whale doubled to make the design symmetrical.
The site is a
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...
under the care of
Historic Environment Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...
and is open at all times.
See also
*
Stones of Scotland
References
External links
*
{{Garioch, Aberdeenshire places, state = collapsed
Historic Environment Scotland properties in Aberdeenshire
Christianity in medieval Scotland
Pictish stones in Aberdeenshire
Scheduled monuments in Aberdeenshire
Inverurie