| Corpus Refs: | Forsyth/1996:16 |
| Site: | FRMSN |
| Discovery: | first mentioned, 1874 Skene |
| History: | Forsyth/1996, 261: `This fragment of a cross-slab was discovered some time before 1874 in the former kirkyard of Formaston in the parish of Aboyne, Aberdeenshire (NGR NJ 5412 0014). The stone was at Aboyne Castle (NO 522993), the seat of the Marquis of Huntly, by 1883...and was still there when Padel visited in the early 1970s. It is now in the possession of the North-East Scotland libraries Service Museums Service (catalogue number I 6904) and housed in the Carnegie Library in Inverurie, to where it was moved in 1974'. Forsyth/1996, 286, lists Skene as the first publisher of the stone. |
| Geology: | Forsyth/1996, 262: `Granite'. |
| Dimensions: | 1.12 x 0.44 x 0.12 (Forsyth/1996) |
| Setting: | in display |
| Location: | Carnegie Library, Inverurie (Cat: I 6904) Forsyth/1996, 261: `housed in the Carnegie Library in Inverurie'. |
| Form: | cross-marked |
| Condition: | incomplete , good Forsyth/1996, 262: `Fragmentary, roughly one quarter of the original slab survives, the carving, however, is well-preserved and the inscription is very clear'. |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | 1: latin; interlace; straight; n/a; curved; angular; none; none; decorated |
| Decorations: | geometric ribbon interlace; other Forsyth/1996, 263--67: `The Formaston cross is carved in very deep false relief ... the cross is of a form very popular in Pictish sculpture, with circular hollows at the intersection of the arms completed by small rings. Formaston has the added detail of a small penannular indentation either side of the shaft, slightly higher than half-way up... The whole of the shaft is outlined with a circular moulding. At the bottom of the shaft there is a hook mirrored by an identical hook at the bottom of the outer margin of the slab ...The shaft of the Formaston cross is filled with a continuous piece of interlace ... below the indentation the pattern consists of figure-of-eight knots arranged in three vertical rows, the pattern being repeated three times in each row. At the indentation the laces flow into two spiral knots (twist and ring), above this, as the shaft widens, there is a variation of interlace ... In the north [of Pictland], however, there is a prominent sub-type of Class II slab which has the symbols arranged around the cross ... We should imagine Formaston as being of this type, perhaps with one symbol in each of the upper quadrants ... While the Formaston cross-slab cannot be earlier than the eighth century, and, in fact, is more likely to be towards the end of that century, a date in the earlier ninth century cannot be ruled out.' |
| Allen & Anderson (1903): | MAQQOITALLUORRHNAAHHTFROBBACAANNEW Expansion: MAQQOI TALLUORRH NAAHHTF ROBBAC CAANNEW Translation: N/A Allen/Anderson/1903 Vol II, 189 reading only |
| Forsyth, K.S. (1996): | MAQQOTALLUORRH | NEHHTWROBBACCENNEWW Expansion: MAQQO TALLUORRH | NEHHTW ROBBAC CENNEWW Translation: Nehht(w) (PN) of the gens of Talorg (PN) robbaic Kineww. Forsyth/1996 268--285 reading only |
| Forsyth, K.S. (1996): | MAQQOTALLUORRH | NEHHTFROBBACCENNEFF Expansion: MAQQO TALLUORRH | NEHHTV ROBBAC CENNEVV Translation: Nehht(v) (PN) of the gens of Talorg (PN) robbaic Kineff. Forsyth/1996 268--285 reading only |
| Orientation: | vertical up up |
| Position: | n/a ; broad ; within quadrants ; undivided |
| Incision: | chiselled Forsyth/1996, 267: `Both lines of ogham are deeply incised with a sharp V-section which makes for a neat and crisply legible text'. |
| Date: | 775 - 1000 (Forsyth/1996) |
| Language: | Goidelic (oghms) |
| Ling. Notes: | Forsyth/1996, 285: `it appears that the language of the inscription is Irish ... though the names Nehht and Talorc are of Pictish origin'. Forsyth/1996, 278--286, suggests a number of interpretations of this inscription. Although equivocal, Forsyth suggests that the text records the transfer of land to the church at Formaston. |
| Palaeography: | Forsyth/1996, 281, suggests that robbaic may have been an error for robbait with the carver mistaking C for T in a model written in Insular minuscule. |
| Legibility: | good Forsyth/1996, 262: `the inscription is very clear'. |
| Lines: | 2 |
| Carving errors: | 1 |
| Doubtful: | no |