Rhins Revealed: Archaeology Talk
July 14, 2020
The Rhins Revealed engagement work is currently on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic but thought it might cheer us up to share some of the work done by pupils from Kirkcolm and Leswalt Schools when the Vikings visited them back in September.
The inspiration for the school project was the Kilmorie Stone, the nationally important unique Medieval carved stone in Kirkcolm Churchyard. The designs on the stone combine Christian and Norse imagery, reflecting Galloway’s Viking and Celtic past.
One face of the stone has an elaborately carved cross decorated with spiral patterns and below two horns, a coiled serpent and a panel of interlacing terminating in a pair of snakes.
On the reverse side is a representation of Christ in front of the cross below which is a figure of a man flanked by two birds and a set of blacksmiths tongs. This is thought most likely to be Sigurd – a super-hero from Norse/Viking mythology with links with the Scandanavian myth ‘Sigurd and the Dragon’.
