Nigg Stone

The parish church is an 18th-century building on an early Christian site dating back to the 8th century.

The stone was probably made in the second half of the 8th century. It is not known where it was erected. The oldest sources say that it was found in the cemetery right next to the parish church of Nigg.

The stone is about 2.2 meters high and one meter wide. The hemispherical ornamentation, which conveys spatial depth, is known from a drawing in the Lindisfarne Gospels. There are further similarities to the high crosses from Ireland.


The scene in the gable section can be interpreted as depictions from the life of the desert father Paul. He and Antonius studying the scriptures together; the bird coming from above that brought him bread; the two palm trees that offered him protection in his desert dwelling; the two lions that are said to have buried Paul in the desert after his death. Everything as Jerome had told it in the legend of Paul that he wrote. Alternatively, an event from the life of Columban could be considered, in which, as described in the hagiography written by Adomnan, he was asked by Cronan, a bishop from Munster in Ireland, to break bread with him. The two dogs under the table could refer to (Mk 7:28 EU), according to which something should also fall for them from the bread that is eaten at it