| Details |
Approximate findspot of three stones decorated with carved bull motifs. Antiquarian records note three of six surviving 'Burghead Bulls' were found during works to the South Quay of Burghead harbour (NJ16NW0039). Using the numbering from J. Romilly Allen and J. Anderson’s Early Christian Monuments of Scotland (1903): ECMS 2 (NRHE NJ16NW5.02 / numlink 319202) described as having been found in 1862 in the course of improvements to the South quay at Burghead, in ground 'that had evidently been made up with materials carried from the old ramparts'. The head of the bull was damaged by the hammer of the labourer who found it. The rubbish in which it lay 'had been taken from the Baileys'. It is now in the care of Moray Museums Service, on display at Burghead Headland Trust Visitor Centre. ECMS 4 (NRHE NJ16NW5.04 / numlink 319204) described as having been found during in the wall of a house being demolished at the South quay in 1867, this fragment is now in the care of Moray Museums Service, on display at Burghead Headland Trust Visitor Centre. ECMS 6 (NRHE NJ16NW5.06 / numlink 319206) described as having been found in 1884 (or 1854) during alterations to the South quay, now in Elgin Museum. See also NJ16NW0005. These stones are likely to have come from the ramparts of the Pictish fort: Young (1891) notes that about 1818 material from the ramparts was used to fill up small bay 'where the present herring-curing stations now stand...... thus was the rubbish disposed of, while the good stones were picked out to make the harbour, and how many inscribed and incised stones are in these harbour piers may be left to sad conjecture'.
|
Moray
HER -
NJ16NW0111 - SOUTH QUAY, BURGHEAD