Ancient Lothian: Historic Edinburgh and South-East Scotland

¤ tormain stane-cross
»dalmahoy
early christian rock-art
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Another monument from Tormain is a now absent Christian cross noted there by Romilly-Allen and Anderson in their still amazingly thorough text, The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland (Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1903):

Stancross, Tormain, from ECMS (1903)
The Stancross, Tormain, from ECMS (1903)

Romilly-Allen and Anderson say that this cross was known as the Stancross Stone ("Stane Cross"). It was apparently 5 feet high, with relief sculpture on the face shown above, and had been used as a gatepost, with a hole through the top arm of the cross itself. However, it was in fact merely removed from Tormain, rather than destroyed, and now stands in the grounds of the nearby St. Mary's Episcopalian Church at Dalmahoy to the south-east of Tormain.

Stancross, Front Stancross, Back
The Stancross, now at Dalmahoy
Stancross, West Face Stancross, East Face

This particular form of cross is generally considered to be quite early - later crosses tend not to be in relief on a slab (apart from Pictish crosses, which this is surely not). The Stancross may date to either the late Gododdin or early Anglian periods, perhaps around the sixth or seventh centuries.

Dalmahoy Episcopalian Church

From Romilly-Allen's description, it seems that the original location of the Stane Cross was in the vicinity of the rock-art and the now missing Witches' Stane on Tormain Hill. It is possible that it represents a Christianisation of these presumably pagan monuments, such as we find at various other locations throughout the early Christian era in particular. The precise reason for its removal to Dalmahoy remains obscure, although may represent a wise attempt at conservation, particularly if it originally stood on active farmland — allegedly, the Torman Witches' Stane was destroyed more recently in an overly-efficient moment of field-clearance. One way or another, the Stane Cross is certainly now in safe hands, even if its archaeological context is lost as a result.

Deepest thanks go to Tom Harrison for suggesting the modern location of this stone after reading an earlier version of this page!

Hand-Made in West Lothian, Scotland