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 on the reverse is extremely complicated and made even more difficult to interpret by deliberate defacement, probably done after the Reformation. Among the depictions are two Pictish symbols: an eagle above a Pictish animal, a sheep, the oldest evidence of a ,European triangular harp, and hunting scenes.