Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum

Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum is housed in a former school house, which backs on to a graveyard where many of the Pictish stones were found! These stones help provide an insight into a group of tribes that lived in eastern Scotland until around 850, such as their building designs and burial rites. They are all that survives from a centre of Pictish heritage so they make up one of the most important collections of early medieval sculpture in Western Europe. We know very little about the Picts, but these carved stones, most of which are made of local sandstone, gives us ideas about their beliefs. Make sure you take a look at the 2.5m (over 8ft!) cross slab known as Meigle 2, which tradition says marked the grave of Vanora, or as she is better known Queen Guinevere, wife of King Arthur! The stone has features such as interlaced images of beasts and a scene of Daniel at the lion's den on the reverse. The guide is always really helpful and it is worth taking time to read the displays to find out more.