Kilmorie Stone
The Kilmorie Stone is a cross slab , an early medieval stone monument that combines Christian and non-Christian elements.
The origin of the stone, whose processor is unknown, is dated to the 8th to 10th centuries . Today the stone is placed in the courtyard of the church of Ervie-Kirkcolm in the west of the Scottish administrative district Dumfries and Galloway .
The front shows an artfully crafted cross with the ornamentation typical of Christian monuments of this time and region . Underneath the tangled bodies of animals can be seen. The reverse shows Jesus on the cross above , below a male figure with a bird and sword as attributes, possibly depicting Siegfried the dragon slayer . One possible explanation is that the stone represents the triumph of Christianity over non-Christians. A classification by science is pending.
Christian congregations in this southwestern part of Scotland are said to date back to the missionaries of Columban of Iona in the 6th century . The stone originally belonged to the early medieval, not preserved St. Mary's Chapel south of Kilmorie . In 1719 it was installed during repairs above the west gate of Kirkcolm's Old Church . When this church was demolished in 1821, the stone remained in the former churchyard, which was part of a property. In the winter of 1986/87, the stone was hit by a fallen tree during a storm, but remained undamaged. It was then moved to its current location.
Despite its great art and religious historical value, the Kilmorie Stone is not protected from the local maritime climate by a roof. In particular, the back of the stone shows a lot of mold, so that the representation of the lower part is difficult to see.