Qualla: Dunnichen Stone

Dunnichen Stone: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kyle Munro, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three symbols are incised on its weathered sandstone face: a Pictish flower, a double disc and Z-rod, and a mirror and comb. Two of these motifs appear on Pictish stones across Scotland. The third -- the flower -- is exceptionally rare. The Dunnichen Stone, discovered in 1811 on the southeast slope of Dunnichen Hill in Angus, dates to roughly the 7th century AD and belongs to a culture that mastered the art of monumental carving but left no written language to explain what any of it meant.

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Image: Kyle Munro | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dunnichen Stone: Found on a Battlefield

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kyle Munro, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dunnichen is no ordinary hillside. In AD 685, the Battle of Dunnichen (also called Nechtansmere) was fought in the area below Dunnichen Hill, a clash between the Picts and the Northumbrians that halted the northward expansion of the Anglian kingdom and secured Pictish independenc...

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Image: Kyle Munro | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dunnichen Stone: A Stone on the Move

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Catfish Jim and the soapdish, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Dunnichen Stone has been a nomad. After its discovery, it was initially set up at an unidentified "Kirkton Church" in either Dunnichen or nearby Letham, then moved to the garden of Dunnichen House. In 1967 it was relocated to St Vigeans Museum, then in 1972 to Dundee Museum, ...

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Image: Catfish Jim and the soapdish | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dunnichen Stone: Reading the Symbols

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kyle Munro, CC BY-SA 3.0. The stone stands 1.5 metres high, 0.7 metres wide, and 0.3 metres thick -- a modest slab of rough sandstone that bears its carvings on one face. The double disc and Z-rod is one of the most common Pictish symbols, appearing on dozens of stones across Scotland, though its meaning ...

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Image: Kyle Munro | CC BY-SA 3.0