A sandstone Pictish symbol stone measuring approximately 3'8" x 2'3" x 7" was found in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens in the nineteenth century near the old Wellhouse Tower, below Edinburgh Castle, the site of an ancient Brythonic fortress. Remarkably, it was being used as part of a footbridge, and is now housed in the stores of the NMS. Click here for a location map provided by StreetMap.
This symbol stone is an apparently crude example the Class I type, bearing the classic Pictish design of crescent and V-rod, along with a weathered double-disc and Z-rod. It is the only known example of a Pictish symbol stone from the Lothians, and as such, has given rise to much speculation as to how it came to be here.
The Edinburgh Pictish Symbol Stone (Romilly-Allen & Anderson, 1903)
One theory is that it was possibly a gift to a king of the Gododdin by the Picts, perhaps as part of a political pact or as part of a marriage exchange. Other historians think of it as having been plundered from Pictavia by invading Gododdin warriors. However, neither theory can be proven. What can be said is that relations between the Gododdin and the Picts do not seem to have been particularly hostile at various points in history, as witnessed by the fact that in their last-ditched assault on the Anglo-Saxons to the South at the Battle of Catraeth in the seventh century, at least one Pictish noble accompanied the Gododdin. Furthermore, the existence of Roman period brochs on the Western and Southern fringes of Lothian may suggest Pictish military aid to the Gododdin to secure a buffer-zone against Roman expansion. One way or another, the existence of this stone in Edinburgh remains something of a mystery.