Is this the biggest conservation failure Scotland has seen?

The sickening destruction of a Pictish monument - by the body meant to conserve it

Edit: The original version of this post said that the stone which has been destroyed was the Battle Stone, one of Scotland’s two most important Pictish memorials, but in fact it was a magnificent cross-slab, described by HES as “one of the finest in its class”. (1)

It seems extraordinary to write these words but Historic Environment Scotland has contrived to knock over one of Scotland’s most important Pictish monuments.

I felt physically sick when I came across the photos of its destruction yesterday in the Dundee Courier online, a few weeks after it happened. It came up while I was randomly googling Scottish history news, because I am researching a book. Surprisingly there has been little coverage of this scandal so far.

This stone stood for about 1,200 years near the Angus village of Aberlemno until March 4, 2025. Now it lies prone, cracked at its base.

Historic Environment Scotland placed a cabin over it over the winter months - to “protect it” from “wintry conditions”. Conditions with which it has interacted for centuries.

One new threat to monuments like this of course is climate change - which is perhaps better described as global storming than global warming. You might have thought that HES, who must be aware of this, would know not to put something in place that seems almost designed to fail in high winds.

The cabin was not cemented in but braced. The stone is almost three metres high so the structure was higher than that, broadside to the weather, and far above the stone wall that offered something of a wind break to the stone.

If you look at the screenshot from the Courier above you can see that at the bottom of the cabin is a bar.

The bar was presumably added for the benefit of the cabin rather than the stone. If it was not for that bar, when the wind lifted it, the cabin might have just blown off and hit something else, like those garden trampolines you see on You Tube birling down the road after a gale.

But because of the bar, it couldn’t have blown off. We can only imagine how the high winds of early March might have smashed it back and forward against the stone, eventually breaking it.

How officicious and even ignorant to put a structure like this over the stone to “protect” it. Was this decision taken in consultation with conservators?

Surely the first principle of conservation is to understand the relationship between an object and its surroundings? After so many centuries in the wind and the weather, that is part of what the stone is.

In Stone Voice, Neal Ascherson wrote (about rock art but I think it applies here too) that stones likes this exist in an environmental context.

“The context is not just the sheet of rock, but the landscape itself…These were people who had a sense of themselves within a landscape, neither as owners nor as distant specks traversing a hostile space but as partners in this cosmos spread out around them.”

This practice of inappropriately covering the stone (2) has been going on since 1980.

HES initial official statement was:

“Yesterday we were made aware that Aberlemno III, one of four Pictish sculptured stones within the village of Aberlemno, had fallen over along with the wooden box which is used to encase the stone during the winter months.”

It “fell over along with the box”? What a coincidence!

The stone that ahs been destoryed was very fine. It was one of the best examples we have of Pictish art. However, it was not as I originally thought, the Batttle Stone. This is recognised as the second most important Pictish monument in Scotland - and therefore anywhere - after the gigantic Sueno’s Stone near Forres.

This stone has elaborate carvings that are thought to show the Battle of Dunnichen of 685, a historic turning point in Scottish history. In “Scotland: A History from Easlire Times” leading historian Alistair Moffat describes it:

“At Aberlemno stands one of the most impressive and informative of all of these stones. Walking up the path into the churchyard, the visitor is greeted by a massive slab with what is usually known as a Celtic cross carved in high relief. There is a hole bored through in the top right-hand angle of the cross and it is flanked by beautifully fluid representations of Pictish animals. On the other side, facing the wall of the church and not immediately visible, is a record of one of the turning points of Scotland’s history…The Battle of Dunnichen of 685

“The stone in Aberlemno churchyard shows three ranks of Pictish infantry, probably drawn up on the slopes of Dunnichen Hill, as they wait for the charge of the Northumbrian cavalry. Holding up his spiked shield high and carrying a sword, the warrior in the front rank is supported by his comrade behind him who pushes out his spear beyond the first rank so that he can stab at the enemy. Behind both of these men stands a third warrior, apparently in reserve. (Horses will wheel away from a solid phalanx of infantry who stand fast and close up quickly if men fall and gaps appear.)

“Bridei lured the Anglian cavalry to fight on ground of his choosing, a narrow place where he could not be easily outflanked and surrounded. The Aberlemno Stone shows that the Pictish infantry did indeed stand fast for in another scene their cavalry chase a fleeing Northumbrian, his shield thrown away. And in the bottom left-hand corner a figure, probably Ecgfrith, is shown lying dead and being pecked at by the symbol of battlefield carnage, a raven.

“The victory at Dunnichen, or in early English, Nechtansmere, was a pivotal moment, famous in two languages perhaps because it influenced their spread. The juggernaut of the Anglian advance was halted and rolled back to south of the Forth...

“The Picts recovered their own lands that had been occupied by the English. Had Dunnichen been lost and the Pictish kingdom badly weakened, the character of Scotland might have been different with Anglian influence stretching far further north. Indeed, there might have been no Scotland at all.”

HES also covers the Battle Stone from April to September. I hope they will now review this practice.

(1) I am sorry for the mistake but relieved it was not the Battle Stone. I think in my defence , the HES website is confusing. The ‘statement of significance’ for the Aberlemno Sculptured Stones does not include ll which is the number given to the Battle Stone. it has its own statement of significance, but it is not titled ll but “Churchyard Slab”. I think the main point about a failure of conservation of historic proportions still stands. However, I should have checked the identity of the stone.

(2) There may be more traditional and time-tested ways of preserving the markings on Pictish stones. I visited a Pictish stone in the village of Fowlis recently - it was moved into the church a couple of centuries ago. A plaque says that for centuries local people regularly covered it in boling oil, which I guess would have sealed the stone.