Hilton of Cadboll Stone

About

The Hilton of Cadboll Stone is one of the most magnificent of all Pictish cross-slabs. It was erected on the East coast of the Tarbat Peninsula in Easter Ross, Scotland about AD 800. It seems likely that, at the time, the entire peninsula from the mouth of the Cromarty Firth to Tarbatness was the estate of the monastery at Portmahomack and that the stone was carved at its instigation.

As with other cross-slabs, the front was a decorated cross and the back had scenes and symbols with religious significance. It was erected in a natural amphitheatre about 100m from the shore. In the thirteenth century the Hilton of Cadboll Chapel was erected 6m to its east.

More recently, the modern settlement Hilton of Cadboll has developed along the coast to its south-west. Chips found buried at the site show that the cross-face started to be defaced in the late sixteenth century during the Scottish Reformation. In 1674 the stone was felled in a storm, with the top three-quarters breaking off.

The cross on the front face was now removed completely and a memorial inscribed to Alexander Duff and his three wives. The stone appears never to have been used as a memorial and was left at Hilton, where it...