St. Vigeans Sculptured Stones

A fascinating and very important collection of over 30 Pictish carved stones have been carefully cleaned and conserved and are now on display in their new museum in the charming village of St Vigeans 0.5m north of Arbroath off the A92. Crossing the 17th century footbridge from the car park into sleepy St. Vigeans, with the only sound coming from the waters of the Brothock burn, it is hard to believe that this Angus village outside Arbroath was once the centre of a royal estate and a huge religious importance, bustling with prayerful pilgrims and monks. April-sees the re-opening of Historic Scotlands museum after a major refurbishment. The museum houses 38 carved stones, which had once stood up on the old church mound to broadcast early messages of the true Christian faith. The stones are among the last and very finest expressions of Pictish art, which makes them tremendously important part of our national collection of the earliest art of Scotland. It is not only what is inscribed on the stones that is important, but why they came to be there in the first place. Over the last two years Dr Jane Geddes of Aberdeen University has been tasked with unlocking the whole picture. Through various approaches such as studying the geology of the stones and the lettering carved on them-her team, all came to the same conclusion: that the site was a centre of power, worship and pilgrimage way before the founding of the nearby Arbroath Abbey in 1174 by King William the Lion.