Carved stone on Dornoch Beach
Date Added: 23 October 2009
Year: 2006
Institution Name: dnhhl
Cat No: ◀ | 2009_088 | ▶
Picture No: 7930
Colour photograph of carved stone on Dornoch Beach, taken in 2006. The stone was in the area of the swimming pool, on the seaward side of the pool steps, and by 2009 was covered in sand.
Dimensions: jpeg file
4 Comments
Does anyone know the origins of these carvings? We saw them in about 2005
Comment left on 17 October 2015 at 20:52 by Bill Hounslow
No: 5063 is a letter from Historic Scotland's Inspector of Ancient Monuments who was sent some photographs of the carved stone. He did not believe that the stone was very ancient.
Comment left on 22 October 2015 at 15:45 by Administrator
Surprisingly little information is known about the beach carving although one tale told is that the carving was possibly done by one of the quarry men/masons working at the beach quarry in their lunch break.
The carving may possibly be connected to the beach swimming pool but I have no idea if the pool was ever was built in the early part of the 20th century?, the carving itself is quite well done and I would have though taken someone with some basic carving skills to produce and also done quickly bearing in mind it is in an intertidal zone.
More modern than ancient I would suspect as I would have though there would be earlier accounts of the carving, maybe a public appeal might help to solve the mystery of the "Dornoch Selkie"
Comment left on 01 November 2015 at 09:07 by Pete Webber
The carving may possibly be connected to the beach swimming pool but I have no idea if the pool was ever was built in the early part of the 20th century?, the carving itself is quite well done and I would have though taken someone with some basic carving skills to produce and also done quickly bearing in mind it is in an intertidal zone.
More modern than ancient I would suspect as I would have though there would be earlier accounts of the carving, maybe a public appeal might help to solve the mystery of the "Dornoch Selkie"
Comment left on 01 November 2015 at 09:07 by Pete Webber
Thank you. We've often wondered about them.
Comment left on 05 November 2015 at 01:33 by Bill Hounslow
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