Behind Raasay House and below the peak of “Temptation Hill,” you may have noticed a mysterious standing stone nestled within an alcove of trees. With its picturesque location by the roadside and weathered appearance, you would be forgiven for thinking it had stood there since time immemorial, placed there by some ancient residents of the Isle of Raasay. However, this is not the case. The stone is ancient, but it has only been at this location on the road to the Creagan Beaga for a couple of 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 near Raasay’s modern ferry terminal. The stone serves as a significant indicator of the spread of early Christianity to the island. But how did it come to rest 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 increasingly raised. As a result, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland (RCAHMS) was established to survey and record such historical artifacts. They first arrived on Raasay in 1914 to conduct a meticulous survey of all historical monuments on the island. In their survey, they described the stone as follows:
“…a dressed slab of stone 4 feet 8 inches long, 1 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, along 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 is 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 its discovery, James MacLeod had the stone erected in the conifer plantation where it still stands today. It is generally accepted to be a depiction of the Chi-Ro, an early Christian symbol that combines the first two letters from the Greek word for “Christ” (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ). This is one of the earliest examples of a “Christogram” and is found in various forms on many Pictish stones. Below the squared Chi-Ro symbol, there also appears to be a “tuning fork” and a “crescent-and-V-rod symbol.” Additionally, there is evidence of significant flaking and chipping, which seems 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 weathered over time, a “Cross Incised Rock” is carved into the rocky outcrop below the battery that overlooks the modern ferry terminal and estate pier. Today, this carving is relatively forgotten compared to the more prominent standing stone, yet it has traditionally been the better-known and more studied inscription.
On his visit to the island in the 1700s, Boswell describes the carved rock at the “landing place” but makes no mention of the standing stone:
“On one of the rocks just where we landed, which are not high ones, there is rudely drawn a square with a crucifix 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 attentively 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 he is correct in deducing that the carvings are Christian, his note that “the Laird of Raasay in old times used to offer up his devotions [to the site]” is particularly revealing. Although these carvings depict Christian iconography, they likely date from a time when Christian missionaries and teachings were being spread and intertwined with older pagan rituals.
The similarity of these carvings suggests that the site around the Battery held significant importance, and both Raasay and Rona would have been key locations for the early church. The land around the Battery, where these carvings were found, would eventually evolve into a more substantial church nearby—the ruins of which are still visible today.
Markers of Moluag
Saint Moluag (also spelled Moloag, Molluog, Maol-luag, and many other variations) was an influential and widely travelled missionary in the 6th century. Born in Ireland, he was a contemporary and rival of Saint Columba, spreading Christianity across Scotland’s West Coast to the Pictish kingdoms and establishing numerous religious sites named after him. This includes Raasay, where a large chapel dedicated to the saint was constructed in the late 12th or early 13th century. It is unknown whether Moluag himself ever visited Raasay, but it is likely that a religious site on the island dates from his lifetime.
The chapel of St Moluag was a subsidiary of St Columba’s Isle in Snizort, and until these lands were annexed by the Crown in 1587, the church maintained a claim over Raasay, Rona, and large parts of Snizort. The chapel and surrounding church lands at Clachan would have formed a substantial religious community that extended well beyond the present-day boundaries of the ruins. It is unclear whether the carvings and standing stones were still in use at this time or had already been abandoned, but a third carving, similar to both the standing stone and the carvings at the Battery, was found near the churchyard, suggesting a potential link to the medieval church.
It also appears that another series of stone tower “crosses” were used to mark the borders of the church lands on Raasay. For hundreds of years, Clachan was labelled on maps and referred to as “Kilmolnock” (likely derived from Cille Mo Luaig, meaning “the church of Moluag”). In his account of Raasay in 1695, Martin Martin mentions these eight “crosses,” which may have served as boundary markers for this area, although 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 at the entrance to the Battery. The foundations of another cross can be found behind the chapel, 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; however, it was not uncommon to recycle or reuse older stones—or to move them from other sites such as Iona.
Below is a 19th-century map of Clachan, showing the known locations of cross bases, St Moluag’s chapel, and the sites of standing stones or stone carvings that have been uncovered. It is difficult to determine whether the standing stone, the carving on the Battery, and the similar Chi-Ro symbol discovered at the chapel were 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 be certain of only two.
But what happened to the historical boundary and sanctuary markers? Their function in Martin’s time seems to have been misunderstood, and by the time Boswell and Johnson arrived, they had started to disappear altogether. From at least the beginning of the 16th century, the MacLeod lairds of Raasay—known as the MacGillieChaluims—ruled over 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, within the borders of “Kilmolnock,” establishing their new seat right next to the chapel. The name Clachan (An Clachan—”The churchyard” or “the village with a church”) likely evolved from the earlier “Kilmolnock.”
This encroachment into the boundary of Kilmolnock may indicate how the MacLeods began to exercise more control over the island from the 16th century onwards. Some traditions suggest that the MacLeods took the island by force. Donald Munro, who became 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.” This may reflect 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 has 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, though the details differ. It’s both intriguing and perplexing to imagine such a large stone simply disappearing; it might have been moved to another estate, broken during relocation, or even mistaken for worthless stone and buried.
Another “lost” stone is even more puzzling. In 1934, a group from the University of Dundee unearthed a massive sandstone slab “in the chapel of St Moluag.” Unlike the surviving stones, this slab shares little resemblance with them, and most curiously of all, it seems to have vanished after its discovery. There is no record of it on Canmore and no further mentions beyond a brief article in the London Illustrated News. Could it be the same stone discovered in 1846 and subsequently lost? And where could it be now?
Conclusion
So, what can we conclude about Raasay’s unusual standing stones? First, we must recognise the inauthentic nature of the most “famous” stone. It was not designed to stand where it is currently located and was unlikely to have been a solitary object. It may have been part of the ancient boundary or “sanctuary” markings for St Moluag’s church and lands. There may have been multiple stones, but at some point, they became obsolete and neglected. It is possible that the MacLeods’ move south from Brochel invalidated these ancient boundaries, although the exact reasons remain unclear. By the time Boswell and Johnson visited, only the carving and cross on the battery were visible, and there was little agreement on the purpose of the stones.
The second point is to consider the condition of the stones. While the markings are still clearly visible, they have significantly faded since their installation in the 1800s. In a hundred years, will anything still be discernible? Would the stone have fared better had it remained buried beneath the ground by the pier? And how many other stones are out there, waiting to be discovered?
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
