Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland

There is something very evocative about these massive Pictish cross-slabs, particularly when they appear to stand undisturbed where they were first erected over a thousand years ago. To say the Glamis slab is undisturbed is perhaps an exaggeration; antiquaries and travellers have been visiting since at least 1726, and some of them record that it stood in the churchyard, whereas today it is in the manse garden. The manse, however was only built in 1788 and its garden may once have lain within the churchyard. To move such a stone is certainly no light undertaking. Excavations in 1855 by Andrew Jervise, the great Angus antiquary, showed that it has been sunk no less than 1.2m below the surface of the lawn. And where there is one slab there is always the possibility of others. Here I first experienced that thrill of discovering a new Pictish stone, not only finding the foot of a cross-slab lost since 1925, but also another decorated fragment in a treasure trove of architectural fragments and medieval graveslabs in and around the garden.