Behind Raasay House and below the peak of “Temptation Hill” you may have noticed a mysterious standing stone within an alcove of trees. With its picturesque location by the side of the road and weathered appearance, you would be forgiven to think that it had stood there since time In Memoriam and placed there by some ancient residents of the Isle of Raasay. However, this is not the case. The stone is ancient but has been at this location on the road to the Creagan Beaga for only a couple hundred years.
In fact the carved slab, decorated with a variety of shapes and characters, is likely part of a series of stones and markings that belonged to an important religious site on the island close to Raasay’s modern ferry terminal. The stone is an important indicator to the spread of early christendom to the island but how did it get to where it is today and where are the rest of Raasay’s carved Pictish stones?
The Mysterious Stone
In the early 20th century, widespread concerns over the possible destruction of important landmarks and monuments were being increasingly raised. As a result of this, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland (RCAHMS) was established to survey and record such historical artifacts and first arrived on Raasay in 1914 to conduct a painstaking survey of all historical monuments on the island. In their survey they described the stone as such:
“…a dressed slab of stone 4 feet 8 inches long, I foot 9 inches broad, and 6 inches thick, bearing on the upper part of one face a cross of the same type as the example at the pier (No. 581) with the tuning fork and crescent with divergent floriated rod Symbols below. This stone originally stood near the pier.“
The stone has elements of Class II Pictish stone, which are defined by their relatively rectangle shape, the presence of a Christian cross as well as possible Pictish or Christian symbols and motifs. Although we can’t be sure of an exact date, Class II stones tend to date from the 8th to the 9th century. It’s possibly older however – if the stone is connected to the nearby ancient religious site around St-Moulags Chapel then it could date from the 6th century.
The stone was said to have been found when James MacLeod of Raasay (1761-1823) was building the road from the “landing-place” (now the ferry terminal) to Raasay House in the 1820s. Upon discovery, James MacLeod had the stone erected in the conifer plantation where it still stands to this day. It’s generally accepted to be a depiction of the Chi-Ro, an early Christian symbol that combined the first two letters from the Greek word for “Christ” (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ). It’s one of the earliest examples of a “Christogramm” and is found in different forms on many Pictish stones. There also appears to be a “tuning fork” and a “crescent-and-V-rod symbol” depicted below the squared chi-ro symbol. There is also evidence of significant flaking and chipping, which seem to have occurred both before and after carving.
A Series of Carvings?
While the solitary stone is now a famous landmark on Raasay, it is not the only one of its kind and may in fact be a copy. Although now faded and worn through the passage of time, just nearby a “Cross Incised Rock” is carved into the rocky outcrop of the “The Battery” that overlooks the ferry pier. Today, it is relatively forgotten compared to the more prominent standing stone but this carving has traditionally been the more well known and studied inscription.
On his visit to the Island in the 1700s, Boswell describes this carved rock at the “landing place” but offers no mention of the standing stone:
“On one of the rocks just where we landed, which are not high ones, there is a rudely drawn a square with a crusifix in the middle, where it is said the Laird of Raasay in old times used to offer up his devotions. I could not but kneel upon the spot and gratefully remember the death of Christ, uttering a short prayer. This I did the morning I left Raasay, while the family accompanied us to the shore; but nobody could imagine that I was doing anything more than attentivley satisfying my curiosity”
Boswell apparently made two attempts to draw this carved cross from the rock face in his diary, but one was blotted and the other scored out. While Boswell is correct in his deduction that the carvings are Christian, it’s his note that “the Laird of Raasay in old times used to offer up his devotions” that is revealing. While these carvings depcit Christian Iconography, they probably date from a time in which the Christian missionaries and teachings were being spread and intertwined with older pagan rituals.
The remarkable similarity of these carvings imply that the site around the battery held some kind of importance and both Raasay and Rona would hold great importance to the early church. The land around the battery where these carvings were found would eventually evolve into a far more significant church – the remains of which are still visible to this day.
Markers of Moluag
Saint Moluag (or Moloag, Molluog, Maol-luag and countless other variations) was an important and well-travelled missionary during the 6th century. Born in Ireland, he was a contemporary (and rival) of Saint Columba and roamed Scotland’s West Coast evangelising Pictish kingdoms and having countless religious sites named after him along the way – including Raasay, where in the late 12th of early 13th century a large chapel was built dedicated to the saint. It’s not known of Moluag himself ever visited Raasay, but it’s likely a religious site on Raasay dates from his lifetime and the island clearly held importance to the early church.
The chapel of St Moluag was a subsidiary to St Columba’s Isle in Snizort and until they were annexed by the crown in 1587, the church maintained a claim of ownership over Raasay, Rona and large parts of Snizort. The chapel and church lands around Clachan would have been a large religious community that extended far outside the modern boundaries of the ruins we see today. It’s not clear if the carvings and standing stones were in use at this point or had been abandoned but a third carving, similar to both the standing stone and the carvings by The Battery, was found in the vicinity of the churchyard and may imply a connection to the medieval church.
It also seems that another series of stone tower “crosses” were used to mark the border of the church lands on Raasay. For hundreds of years, Clachan was labeled on maps and referred to as “Kilmolnock” (probably Cille Mo Luaig – the church of Moluag). Martin Martin, in his account of Raasay in 1695, mentions these eight “crosses” that may have acted as a boundary to mark this area, though he believed them to be memorials.
They preserve the memory of the deceased ladies of the place by erecting a pyramid of stone for each of them, with the lady’s name. These pyramids are by them called crosses; several of them are built of stone and lime, and have three steps of gradual ascent to them. There are eight such crosses about the village .
Johnson, arriving in 1773, disagreed with Martin’s assessment.
It is told by Martin, that at the death of the Lady of the Island, it has been here the custom to erect a cross. This we found not to be true. The stones that stand about the chapel at a small distance, some of which perhaps have crosses cut upon them, are believed to have been not funeral monuments, but the ancient boundaries of the sanctuary or consecrated ground.
Boswell, in his account, expanded on the use of the markers:
The eight crosses which Martin mentions as pyramids for deceased ladies stood in a semi-circular line comprehending the chapel. They have been real crosses and have marked out the boundaries of the sacred territory within which an asylum was to be had. The one which we observed upon our landing was the one which made the first point of the semi-circle. There are few of them now remaining, and they have ended at an opposite point on the west. A good way farther north there is a row of dry-stone buildings about four foot high and yards around, twice what I could grasp and five hands. They run along the top of a pretty high eminence and so down to the shore on the west, in pretty much the same direction with the crosses. Raasay took them to be the marks for the asylum. But Malcolm thought them to be false sentinels, a common deception (of which instances occur in Martin) to make invaders imagine the island better guarded; and Mr Donald Macqueen, justly in my opinion, makes the crosses which form the inner circle to be the church’s landmarks.
The cross that Boswell “observed upon our landing” was not the carving in the rock, but rather a cross built on top of the battery itself, the ruins of which can still be seen beside the iron-wrought gate on the entrance to the battery. The foundations of another cross can be found behind the chapel and close to where Boswell describes a “row of dry-stone buildings”. These crosses or “pyramids of stone” may have been more modern versions of the standing stone but it also wasn’t uncommon to have recycle or reuse older stone – or move them from other sites such as Iona.
Below is a 19th century map of Clachan, showing both the known locations of cross bases, St Moluags chapel, and the known locations of standing stones or stone carvings that have been uncovered. It’s hard to tell if the standing stone, the carving on the battery and the similar chi-ro symbol discovered at the chapel are part of the series of eight sanctuary markers noted by Martin, Boswell and Johnson. At one time there were at least eight of these sanctuary markers. Today, we can only be confident of two.
But what happened to the historical boundary and sanctuary markers? Their function in Martins time seemed to be misunderstood and by the time Boswell and Johnson had arrived they had started to disapear altogether. From at least the beginning of the 16th century, the MacLeod lairds of Raasay – known as the MacGillieChaluims – would come to rule Raasay and Rona. A Crown charter from 1596 states that Calum MacLeod of Raasay and his predecessors “had, since time immemorial, held Raasay from the Bishop of the isles. The new Macleods of Raasay would initially be based at Brochel but eventually moved south and inside the borders of “Kilmolnock” – basing their new seat right next to the chapel. The name Clachan (An Clachan – “The churchyard” or “the village with a church”) perhaps evolved from the earlier “Kilmolnock”.
This encroachment into the boundary of Kilmolnock is perhaps an indication of how the MacLeods were beginning to exercise more control over the island from the 16th century onwards. Some traditions maintain that the MacLeods took the island by force. Donald Munro, who had become the vicar of Raasay and Snizort in 1526, notes in his account Description of the Western Isles of Scotland that Raasay “Pertained to M’Gyllychallan of Raasay (Calum Garbh) by the sword, and to the Bishop of the Isles by heritage”. It perhaps indicates a tension between the new rulers of Raasay – the MacLeods- and the historical boundaries of St Moluag’s chapel and church lands which had existed on the island for hundreds of years.
Lost Stones?
Finally, there is an intriguing reference to a second standing stone that was uncovered in 1846 near the chapel. “Immediately South of Torr Iain Ghairbh, a sculptured stone was found in 1846, which is presently placed in an upright position near the East end of Raasay House. This rough granite slab bears on one side in relief what appears to commemorate one of the stages of the Passion of Christ, and is possibly one of the eight crosses referred to by Boswell as St Maol-luag’s chapel sanctuary markers“. The stone is said to have been removed from where it was ‘set up’ sometime between 1877 and 1904.
Since then, it’s neither been accounted for nor sighted and all inquiries have turned up negative. Could this account be confusing or conflating the discovery of the “original standing stone”? It’s possible, but the details are quite different. It’s both interesting and confusing to imagine a giant stone simply disappearing, though it could have been moved to another estate, broken while being moved or possibly mistaken for worthless stone and buried somewhere.
Another “lost” stone is even more confusing. In 1934 a group from the University of Dundee unearthed a huge sandstone slab “in the chapel of St Moluag”. This stone shares little resemblance with the surviving stones and perhaps most strangely of all, seems to have disappeared after its discovery. There’s no record on Canmore and no mentions beyond a short article in the London Illustrated News. Is it the same one discovered in 1846 and then subsequently lost? Where is it now?
Conclusion
So what are we to make of Raasay’s unusual standing stones? The first is to recognise the inauthentic nature of the most “famous” of the stones. It was not designed to stand where it is currently located and was unlikely to have been a solitary object. It was possibly one part of the ancient boundary or “sanctuary” markings for the St Moluags church and lands. There may have been multiple stones but at some point they become obsolete and neglected. It may have been the Macleods moving to the south of Raasay from Brochel that finally invalidated these ancient boundaries, though it’s hard to know exactly. By the time Boswell and Johnson visited, only the carving and cross on the battery remained visible and there was little no agreement on what the stones were used for.
The second point is to recognise the stones condition. While the markings are still clearly visible, they have significantly faded since it was installed there in the 1800s. In a hundred years will anything be visible? Would the stone have survived better where it lay, buried under the ground by the pier? And how many other stones are out there waiting to be found?
The iron fence that surrounds the stone was made by GB Smith & Co of Glasgow for the estate. It was probably fitted in the late 1870s
