Fowlis Wester Sculptured Stone

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no parking. OpenStreetMap maps a small parking area about 35 m north of the church in Fowlis Wester village, but no official source names it, so the status is recorded as unknown. The lanes in the village are narrow.

Driving pin: Fowlis Wester Parish Church, about 50 m from Historic Scotland's own pin on the replica stone in the village square. Fowlis Wester is 6 miles north-east of Crieff off the A85. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Inside the small parish church of Fowlis Wester, a village near Crieff, stands a tall Pictish cross-slab of red sandstone about 3 m high, probably carved in the 700s or 800s. It is unique among Pictish stones in having cross arms that project beyond the edges of the slab, as if it were a free-standing cross. The back is crowded with carving: a double disc and Z-rod symbol, horsemen, one carrying a hawk, a beast, and a cow with a bell round its neck led by a man and followed by six others, a scene found on no other Pictish stone. At the foot a man is being devoured by a beast. The stone probably first stood at a chapel in Buchanty and stood in the village square until 1991, when it was moved indoors for conservation; a full-size replica stands in the square. The 13th-century church, dedicated to St Bean, holds other carved stones too and is open daily in daylight, with a service once a month.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Fowlis Wester Sculptured StoneOpen daily in daylight hours; the stone is inside Fowlis Wester Parish Church, no set times

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'The Fowlis Wester Sculptured Stone is inside Fowlis Wester Parish Church and is free to visit. The church is open during daylight hours.' Mid Strathearn Church of Scotland, whose congregation uses the church, says it 'is open daily all year round'.

Fowlis Wester (St Bean's) is a working Church of Scotland church of Mid Strathearn Parish, with a service on the third Sunday of the month at 10.30am. The original cross-slab has stood inside since 1991; a full-size replica stands in its railed enclosure in the village square, so the carving can be seen even if the church is closed. No toilets.

Photo: Inside St Bean's Church, Fowlis Wester: oak pews under a timber roof, with the tall red sandstone cross-slab standing beneath the arch on the north side. PaulT (Gunther Tschuch), CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Perth_and_Kinross_Fowlis_Wester_St_Bean_2.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.