The crescent is thought to symbolise the moon/sun and also thought to symbolise death.


The V-rod is thought to be a bent or broken arrow.]]>
The bull likewise symbolizes ties to the land, ancestry, and kinship. A good bull was a sign of wealth in a culture that revolved around farming, the prestige of a clan’s bull was closely linked to that of its king, and to the prosperity of its people.

Although Pictish symbols usually appear in pairs, a few have only been found on their own. These include the Bull and the Bear.]]>
Discovered in 1894 - a farmer ploughing his fields at Easterton farm, unearthed the top of a burial cist. The pictish stone formed the West side of the irregularly shaped cist.

It seems the stone had been re-used, as both sides, including the outermost side, exposed to the soil, are inscribed with pictish designs.

Outer aspect of stone, A large Crescent with notch (A bridge, or 'rainbow-arch' to some), above a crescent and v-rod, and mirror and comb.

Reverse side - A goose, with neck arched back over body, above a salmon.

The goose is a rare form of a pictish design, likely 5-6th Century in its construction.

Nearby can be found the Sculptor's Cave and Burghead's Pictish Fort. Numerous Cists and burial cairns are found locally, at Inverugie and the hill of Tappoch.]]>


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The Pictish Beast (sometimes Pictish Dragon or Pictish Elephant) is an artistic representation of an animal depicted on Pictish symbol stones. It is not easily identifiable with any real animal, but resembles a seahorse, especially when depicted upright. Suggestions have included a dolphin, a kelpie and even the Loch Ness Monster.

Recent thinking is that it may be related to the design of dragonesque brooches, S-shaped pieces of jewelry from the mid-1st to 2nd century CE that depict double-headed animals with swirled snouts and distinctive ears. These have been found in southern Scotland and northern England. The strongest evidence for this is the presence on the Mortlach 2 stone of a symbol very similar to such a brooch, next to and in the same alignment as a Pictish Beast.

The Pictish Beast accounts for about forty per cent of all Pictish animal depictions, and so was likely of great importance. It is thought that it was either an important figure in Pictish mythology, and/or a political symbol.]]>
Know here as the Key Pattern, or a meander or meandros (Greek: Μαίανδρος) it is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Such a design is also called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these are modern designations. On the one hand, the name "meander" recalls the twisting and turning path of the Maeander River in Asia Minor, and on the other hand, as Karl Kerenyi pointed out, "the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form". Among some Italians, these patterns are known as Greek Lines.

'J. Romeilly Allen was of the opinion that the essential difference between the classical Key patterns and those used by the Christian Celts of Britain and Ireland, consisted in the introduction of diagonal lines by the latter.' - George Bain, Celtic Art, The Methods of Construction.]]>
The interlacing of human form and Celtic knots evolved from laws forbidding drawing portraits of human figures as this was tantamount to copying a work of the creator, “God the Almighty,” explains Bain in his book Celtic Art. Similarly, it was forbidden to draw animals or plants. Angels and mythic creatures, on the other hand, were not of the earthly realm. And Saints had departed this realm. Thus, Celtic knot patterns were used to represent most of the human form, while heads, appendages and tails were often depicted using more life-like representations.]]>
Open all year (free)
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Visible all year -it is just inside the churchyard gate to Castle Brae, outside the museum doorway. In the museum itself are fragments of two Pictish stones found at Edderton Churchyard in 1992, and also a fragment of the Nigg Stone, found in 1999.]]>