The Whitecleuch Chain is a large

Pictish Pictish is the 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 number of geographica ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

chain that was found in Whitecleuch,

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...

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 ...

in 1869. A high status piece, it is likely to have been worn as a

choker A choker is a close-fitting necklace worn around the neck, typically 14 inch to 16 inch in length. Chokers can be made of a variety of materials, including velvet, plastic, beads, latex, leather, metal, such as silver, gold, or platinum, etc ...

neck ornament for ceremonial purposes. It dates from around 400 to 800 AD. The chain is one of ten certain examples of this type, and is on display at the Museum of Scotland in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Description

Weighing 1.8 kg and measuring approximately 50 cm in length, the chain consists of 44 silver rings interlinked into 22 pairs. According to Clark, the chain originally had 23 pairs of rings, but was damaged subsequent to its discovery. The paired ring chain is joined by a large penannular piece with expanded flanges. The penannular ring bears

Pictish symbols A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele, generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. A few have ogham inscriptions. Located in Scotland, mostly north of the Clyde-Forth line and on the Eastern side of the country, these stones ar ...

of the sort typically found on Class I and II Pictish standing stones. On one side of the opening in the ring, there is a zigzag pattern and a double disc and Z-rod symbol, bearing similarity to those on the silver plaques found in the

Norrie's Law hoard Norrie's Law hoard is a sixth century silver hoard discovered in 1819 at a small mound in Largo, Fife, Scotland. Found by an unknown person or persons, most of the hoard was illegally sold or given away. Remaining items of the hoard were fou ...

. On the other side of the opening, there is a notched rectangle symbol, decorated with a pair of circles, running lengthwise along the rectangle and attached to opposite edges of the rectangle. This design is similar to that found on a stone found at Westfield, Falkland as well as a number of notched rectangles that are further decorated with Z-rods. The penannular ring was apparently used as a fastener to link the terminal ends of the chain together into a choker neck ornament.

Findspot

The Whitecleuch chain was found in May 1869 on land belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch at Whitecleuch,

. The initial report, made by Smith (1874), described the location of the find as being "in the vicinity of

Drumlanrig Castle Drumlanrig Castle is situated on the Queensberry Estate in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The category A listed castle is the Dumfriesshire home of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry. It is open to the public at set times. Con ...

" in

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...

. The precise location was later clarified as being 12 miles north of the castle, in pasture land known as Rough Flow Moss, Whitecleuch.(). This has caused a certain amount of confusion, with both sites being listed in some censuses of Pictish chains. The chain was found at a depth of around 45 cm in the ground and was exposed by erosion of the edges of a drainage ditch. The location of the find in the South West of Scotland, some distance from the

territory is of no real significance due to the portable nature of the chain.

Gallery

File:Whitecleugh - geograph.org.uk - 191870.jpg, Whitecleuch Farm, where the chain was discovered File:CollierArgentCelte.jpg, Chain ends linked together by penannular ring to form choker.

References

{{coord, 55.4576, N, 3.8818, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Individual necklaces Pictish art Collections of the National Museums of Scotland Silver objects Medieval European metalwork objects Torcs