Dunfallandy Stone

One of the finest monuments of the Celtic period lies at
the ancient mausoleum at Dunfallandy House. ( The stone is now located SSE of Pitlochry. ) All the experts are unanimous as to its beauty and workmanship. The legend is that St. Triduana, a nun at the Priory of Restenneth near Forfar, was being forced into marriage with the son of the royal house, but she escaped to the quiet little chapel by the Tummel at Dunfallandy, and in gratitude for her escape she had this praying-stone erected to her patron saint. The Cross, the interlacing, the spiral bosses all bespeak the Celtic craftsman at his very best, and the Bestiary is indeed high art. The reverse side shows Christian symbols of a lower order of artistic genius. This may well have been carved at
a later period. Referring to the mounted figure, Ian Finlay,
in “Art in Scotland,” writes : “ It is one of the two supreme masterpieces in the animal carving of the Pict which, had they alone survived, would have entitled him to rank second to none in his art. Perfectly ccommodated to the cramped space available, with the cunning of the best heraldic art, it possesses also the sensitive line of the Altamira cavern paintings.”

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