- Location: Next to Dunfallandy Home Farm, Pitlochry PH16 5NA
- Opening times: All year, 24 hours
- Entry: No charge
- Access: Lay-by parking onsite
After visiting the Pass of Killicrankie I have a quick consultation with the Historic Environment Scotland guidebook I keep in my glove compartment to see if they have any sites nearby. It turns out a carved Pictish stone lies just south of Pilochry, and since I haven’t visited any carved Pictish stones since I was here and here, I decided to check it out.
The Dunfallandy Stone is in farmland which means travelling along some farm roads, which sometimes gets the better of GPS and Google, but not this time. Both led me to where I wanted to go, which was a small two car lay-by (three at a push) off the beaten track but next to Dunfallandy Home Farm. A sign on the gate tells you if you are in the right place, and the stone is a one-minute walk from there
The Dunfallandy Stone stands at the top of a mound that used to be topped by a chapel but is now home to what a assume is a private cemetery. The stone is of red sandstone and is enclosed in a stone and glass shelter to protect it from the elements. It stands, as far as we know, where it was first raised at least 1,200 years ago. Like other Pictish stones, it bears a cross on the front, in this case surrounded by figures, and a carved scene on the back, and it would possibly have been brightly painted.
Details from the Cross side of the stone. The carving on the left depicts “Jonah being swallowed by a fish-tailed ketos (a sea monster), an early Christian version of the Biblical whale”. The information board describes the creatures on the right as “distinctive Pictish monsters, agents of God’s wrath”.
The Dunfallandy Stone stands directly outside this gate leading to a small cemetery. Apart from the mausoleum above there are two other graves, one of which can be seen through the gate. On the other side of the perimeter fence to the left of this photo are two more. All bar one remember members of the Ferguson family, who presumably were once of some importance in the area (and perhaps still are). The other grave bears the name Robertson, who, it is safe to assume, had some connection to the Fergusons. According to several websites the mound on which this cemetery and the Pictish stone stand was once marked on old maps as ‘Mausoleum Mound’. The photo on the right shows the Dunfallandy Stone in its shelter.
Destination or Diversion?
Dunfallandy Stone is a diversion, no more and no less.
