Netherurd Mains, Kirkurd, Peeblesshire

Cross:  OS Grid References – NT 1041 4403

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 50098
  2. Swastika Stone

Archaeology & History

Swastika X, Netherurd
Netherurd’s Swastika Cross Stone

This supposedly 10-12th century carving — found in the early 1940s and handed to the Scottish National Museum in Edinburgh by Mr A. Sanderson — took my interest by virtue of the distinct swastika design carved on the face of the stone.*  The fact that it’s etched onto what’s thought to be the remains of an old christian cross shouldn’t be too surprising: we find it on numerous other old stone crosses, church bells and other religious remains.

This example was only carved on one side of the stone, which measures some 18-inches high and just 9 inches across.  The top of the stone has a design typical of many early crosses from between the 9th to 14th century; whilst the curvaceous line on the lower-right also typifies imagery found on many crosses from this period — some of which appear to be based on cup-and-ring imagery.  However, no such cup-and-rings seem to have been in evidence where this cross-remain was found.  Very little else is known about its history.

Although it aint quite as old as Ilkley’s Swastika Stone, this is still a fascinating carved stone indeed!

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Peeblesshire – volume 1, HMSO: Edinburgh 1967.
  2. Stevenson, Robert B.K., ‘The Inchyra Stone and some other Unpublished Early Christian Monuments’, in PSAS 92, 1961.

* To those who don’t know, the swastika symbol has been used by people from around 20,000 BC onwards and has only very recently gained a bad press.  It’s a symbol that needs to be reclaimed, through education, and put back into its proper mythic place where it belongs – away from any Nazi dip-shits, whose retarded actions pale into insignificance when it comes to the primal archaic nature of this old form.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian