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Scottish Art - Paintings of Scotland:
The Maiden Stone

by D. Bruce Bennett

Misty Maiden Stone

Really "into" standing stones and want to make that crystal clear to your guests? This matted and framed, 34"-high original art will do just that. Though Pictish carvings on the east face are quite clear, we're clearly viewing The Maiden Stone through proverbial Scottish mists. Give this piece of Scottish Art pride of place by displaying it in an area crying out for something long and slender, which already has enough color of its own.

(Click for larger view of The Maiden Stone.)

In its real-deal, physical setting at the edge of tiny Chapel of Garioch village, The Maiden Stone is - and probably always will be - an enigma. An accomplished Pictish stone carver labored over the east face of the upright slab of pinkish red granite in the late 8th or early 9th century. That date and the subject matter of the west-facing side - a large, ring-headed cross - tell us it was carved just before the Picts became fully Christian.

This east face of the ten-foot slab, as you see, shows a centaur-like beast, notched-rectangle and Z-rod (chariot), another beast, and a mirror and double-sided comb. Though there are many theories about isolated standing stones like this one, many feel they're most likely to have been personal memorials to a chieftains or powerful persons and perhaps used by surviving descendants as a method of "claiming" the surrounding land.

Legends conflict as to the origin of this standing stone's unusual name. One has it that a young woman agreed to a stranger's bet that he could build a road to the top of a nearby, 1733-feet ridge before she could bake a large batch of bannocks. If he won, she would be his bride. (What if she won? What was her reward? Ah, well. Not a very bright girl, it would appear.)

Being the devil in disguise, he did as he said, made good his bet, and won. She fled, praying to be turned to stone rather than to become the devil's bride. She got her wish, turning into The Maiden Stone just as the devil caught her. Another myth claims a young woman was killed here in a scuffle after her elopement, which sounds a whole lot more plausible, but what do we know - 1200 years later?

Misty Maiden Stone Picture of Scotland
Medium: acrylic on 300#, cold-pressed watercolor paper (For larger art work of The Maiden Stone, see Lonely Maiden Stone.)
Image Dimensions: 11" w. x 25.5" h.
Mat: white with black core, 4.25” T & B; 3” L & R
Glass: yes
Frame: .375” w. black metal; 17"w. x 34"h.

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