Sculptured stone

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This unusual sculptured stone was discovered at Bullion at Invergowrie in Angus when the Kingsway extension was built around Dundee. It may have been the work of an imaginative local sculptor.

Decorated in relief on one side only, the slab shows a horseman with a round shield slung across his shoulders. The man drinks from a horn while his horse plods uphill. The bird's head on the drinking horn is twisted to look down on the rider.

Cattle horns, embellished with elaborate metal mounts at the mouth and metal terminals at the point, were high status possessions in Anglo-Saxon and Viking societies. Some were used as drinking horns. Others were probably blown as a battle horn.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-043-517-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IB 229
• Date: Around the first half of the 10th century
  c. 900 - 950
  
• Material: Stone
  Slab
  
• Dimensions: 2050 mm H x 160 mm L x 780 mm W
  
• What: Slab
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Angus, Invergowrie, Bullion
  
• Event:
• Description: Pictish sculptured slab depicting a horseman with sword and shield drinking from an ox horn, from Bullion, Invergowrie, c. 900 - 950
  
• References:
  • Close-Brooks, J. & Stevenson, R.B.K. Dark Age Sculpture. Edinburgh: HMSO, 1982 
• Translations:
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