Brandsbutt Symbol Stone

The Brandsbutt Stone stands in a small green space among the houses of a modern estate in Inverurie, one of the earliest kinds of Pictish carved stone, made about AD 600. It is a slab of dark whinstone about a metre high, incised with a crescent and V-rod above a serpent and Z-rod, the serpent carved in fine detail. Up its left side runs a bold ogham inscription, read as IRATADDOARENS and possibly the name Ethernan, or Adrian: one of more than thirty ogham inscriptions in Pictish lands, evidence of early literacy and of links between the Pictish and Gaelic languages. The stone probably stood first in a prehistoric stone circle and was reused by the Picts, who often took over older sacred sites in the north-east. Later it was broken up for local building and pieced back together, and the cracks still show. Reviewers praise the information board and say it is signed through the estate; park with care on Gordon Terrace.