The Maiden Stone, also known as the Drumdurno Stone after the nearby farm, is a Pictish standing stone near

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography Inverurie is in the vall ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, probably dating to the 9th century AD.

Name

The name is derived from local legend, incorporating the most obvious mark of wear and tear on the stone: a triangular notch toward the top of the monument. The legend states that the daughter of the Laird of

Balquhain Balquhain, also known as Balquhain Stone Circle, is a recumbent stone circle from Inverurie in Scotland. It is a scheduled ancient monument. Description and measurements It is located in farmland at an altitude of c. on a terraced hillside lea ...

made a bet with a stranger that she could bake a

bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle * Bannock (Indigenous American), various types of bread, usually prepared by pan-frying * Bannock people, a Native American people of what is now southeastern Oregon ...

faster than he could build a road to the top of

Bennachie Bennachie ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Beinn na Cìche'') is a range of hills in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.Whiteley, A.W.M. (Ed.) (1976). ''The Book of Bennachie''. The Bailies of Bennachie. . Mostly anecdotes and verse about the mountain and its surrou ...

. The prize would be the maiden's hand. However, the stranger was the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

and finished the road and claimed the forfeit. The maiden ran from the Devil and prayed to be saved. The legend finishes by saying that

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

turned her to stone, but the notch is where the Devil grasped her shoulder as she ran.

Purpose

Based on the mixture of

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

and

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

symbols on the stone it is most likely that the stone marks a preaching site during missionary trips to the Picts.

Description

Line drawing of Maiden Stone, trimmed (cropped)

The stone is red granite, standing 3.01m high (one of the tallest of all Pictish monuments, even though several centimetres have been lost at the top owing to weathering). It is a Class II Pictish monument (combining Christian, and pre-Christian Pictish, motifs), dating from the late 8th or early 9th century AD. The west side has a ringed cross below a human figure between two "fish-monsters". Below the cross there is a square panel with a disc containing a Celtic spiral motif at its centre, surrounded by a key-patterned ring, with knotwork patterns infilling the corners. On the reverse, there are four panels enclosing: a large centaur below three very weathered figures (possibly two smaller wrestling centaurs and a dog); a "notched rectangle and Z-rod" symbol; a

Pictish Beast The Pictish Beast (sometimes Pictish Dragon or Pictish Elephant) is an artistic representation of an animal depicted on Pictish symbol stones. Design The Pictish Beast is not easily identifiable with any real animal, but resembles a seahorse, ...

symbol, a mirror and a comb. There is a knotwork pattern on the narrow north edge and a keywork pattern on the south edge. A portion of the north edge is missing and the patterns are heavily eroded, particularly on the western face. The human figure and "fish-monsters" may represent the Biblical story of

Jonah and the Whale Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th cent ...

, with the whale doubled to make the design symmetrical. The site is a

scheduled ancient monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

under the care of

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

and is open at all times.

References

{{Garioch, Aberdeenshire places, state = collapsed Historic Scotland properties in Aberdeenshire Pictish stones Christianity in medieval Scotland Pictish stones in Aberdeenshire Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Aberdeenshire Inverurie

Name

Purpose

Description

See also

References