[MR] History Blog: Galloway Hoard Cross Restored

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots, and yes, Saxons Too,

Today's History Blog entry describes the cleaning and restoration of an
extremely rare Saxon pectoral cross from the Galloway Hoard:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/60248 .

And what is a Saxon cross doing in Scotland? Much of lowland Scotland was
invaded by Saxons and became part of the kingdom of Northumbria. Later
Galloway was within the proto-Scottish kingdom of Dal Raita, and eventually
incorporated into what would eventually become Alba/Scotland. At one time
Scotland also ruled Northumbria itself, so there was a lot of
cross-cultural stuff going on in the whole region.

The cross has been carefully cleaned by museum curators, and reveals the
beauty and delicacy of its surface, including images of the four
evangelists and their symbols. Sorry, but according to Catholic Online
Luke's "cow" symbol is more properly an ox, sometimes with wings, though
occasionally depicted as a calf.

I hope you enjoy this lovely and important artifact.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆