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The Govan Stones
The Govan Stones is an internationally important museum collection of early medieval carved stones displayed at Govan Old Parish Church in Glasgow, Scotland.
The carved stones come from the surrounding 1,500-year-old early medieval churchyard and include the Govan Sarcophagus, five Anglo-Scandinavian style Viking-Age hogbacks, four upright crosses, the 'Govan Warrior' carving, and a wide range of recumbent cross-slab burial monuments, with most seemingly dating to between the 9th and 11th centuries AD.
The carved stones are thought to have been created to commemorate the power and wealth of the rulers of the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde, which was part of Yr Hen Ogledd ('The Old North').
Forty-five stones existed as late as the 1970s. However, fourteen 'recumbent gravestones' (funerary markers laid flat over the grave), which had not been taken into the church and were lying next to the east wall of the churchyard, were thought to have been destroyed when the neighbouring Harland and Wolff shipyard plating shed was demolished in 1973, with the damaged early medieval stones being mistaken for debris.
Nevertheless, one of these 'lost' stones was rediscovered in 2019 by a fourteen-year-old schoolboy, Mark McGettigan, working as part of the ‘Stones 'n' Bones’ community archaeology and heritage programme. Two more recumbent gravestones were uncovered subsequently, prompting hopes that more of the stones – possibly as many as the fourteen originally thought destroyed – had survived.
As of 2024, excavations of the approximately 1,500-year-old Govan Old graveyard are continuing, with new early medieval carved stones being uncovered by teams led by Prof. Stephen Driscoll of University of Glasgow Archaeology and Clyde Archaeology.
Notable recent finds include a fragment known as the 'Govan Warrior,' which was discovered in September of 2023 in the south-east corner of the graveyard, an area where excavations are unearthing an early medieval gravel roadway. In 2024, a fragment of median-incised interlace, typical of existing examples in the collection, such as the Govan Sarcophagus, was excavated.
The remaining carved stones are the Govan Sarcophagus, five hogback stones (of a Viking-Age type originating in Anglo-Scandinavian Yorkshire), four standing crosses and twenty-one recumbents.
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The Govan Stones
The Govan Stones is an internationally important museum collection of early medieval carved stones displayed at Govan Old Parish Church in Glasgow, Scotland.
The carved stones come from the surrounding 1,500-year-old early medieval churchyard and include the Govan Sarcophagus, five Anglo-Scandinavian style Viking-Age hogbacks, four upright crosses, the 'Govan Warrior' carving, and a wide range of recumbent cross-slab burial monuments, with most seemingly dating to between the 9th and 11th centuries AD.
The carved stones are thought to have been created to commemorate the power and wealth of the rulers of the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde, which was part of Yr Hen Ogledd ('The Old North').
Forty-five stones existed as late as the 1970s. However, fourteen 'recumbent gravestones' (funerary markers laid flat over the grave), which had not been taken into the church and were lying next to the east wall of the churchyard, were thought to have been destroyed when the neighbouring Harland and Wolff shipyard plating shed was demolished in 1973, with the damaged early medieval stones being mistaken for debris.
Nevertheless, one of these 'lost' stones was rediscovered in 2019 by a fourteen-year-old schoolboy, Mark McGettigan, working as part of the ‘Stones 'n' Bones’ community archaeology and heritage programme. Two more recumbent gravestones were uncovered subsequently, prompting hopes that more of the stones – possibly as many as the fourteen originally thought destroyed – had survived.
As of 2024, excavations of the approximately 1,500-year-old Govan Old graveyard are continuing, with new early medieval carved stones being uncovered by teams led by Prof. Stephen Driscoll of University of Glasgow Archaeology and Clyde Archaeology.
Notable recent finds include a fragment known as the 'Govan Warrior,' which was discovered in September of 2023 in the south-east corner of the graveyard, an area where excavations are unearthing an early medieval gravel roadway. In 2024, a fragment of median-incised interlace, typical of existing examples in the collection, such as the Govan Sarcophagus, was excavated.
The remaining carved stones are the Govan Sarcophagus, five hogback stones (of a Viking-Age type originating in Anglo-Scandinavian Yorkshire), four standing crosses and twenty-one recumbents.