Only two of the ancient sculptured standing stones peculiar to Scotland are accompanied with inscriptions. One of them, discovered about thirty years since, on demolishing the ancient Church of Fordoun, in the Mearns, was then apparently undecipherable,[537] and has since become illegible; the other is on a beautiful though mutilated cross in the churchyard of St. Vigeans. That of St. Vigeans is in the common Celtic character familiar to us on early Irish monuments, and on the oldest tombs at Iona, and therefore in so far adds confirmation to the idea advanced as to the probable era of these sculptures. But it is imperfect and perhaps too mutilated to admit of intelligible translation, though sufficient remains in the first words, Aꞅoil en, to shew that it is of the usual character of Scottish and Irish Celtic monumental inscriptions.
"Mr. Petrie," says Mr. Chalmers, "is of opinion, from a portion of it which he has deciphered, that the monument is Pictish, and he expresses a hope that he will be able to explain the inscription." But as the legible fragment seems to consist of only three words and part of a fourth, no very valuable information can be looked for from its fractional remainder.
One other peculiar and indeed altogether unique inscription occurs on a rude unhewn standing stone of granite in the vicinity of the Maiden Stone, with its mysterious symbols, at Newton, in Garioch, Aberdeenshire. The column measures fully six feet in height, and about two feet in greatest breadth. On its upper part is the inscription, extending to six lines, in large and sufficiently distinct, but entirely novel and unintelligible characters. It has been more than once engraved, and repeatedly submitted to eminent antiquaries, but still remains undeciphered. General Vallancey, the well-known Irish antiquary, professed to read the two first words of it. What indeed would he not have undertaken to decipher? These he rendered Gylf Gomarra, Prince Gomarra, apparently from some slight or fancied resemblance of the characters to the corresponding Roman letters, but his G and F are manifestly the same, and the whole still remains an enigma. The side of the same stone, however, bears another inscription, also shewn in part in the annexed engraving, which appears to have escaped the notice of earlier observers, though introduced as a mere ornament in the representation inserted in the Transactions of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. It has recently been pronounced by Irish antiquaries an Ogham inscription, and as such, is an object of considerable interest, no other example of the use of that simple and extremely primitive character, which the older antiquaries of Ireland have made the subject of so many extravagant theories, having been discovered in Scotland. It does not necessarily follow that the two inscriptions belong to the same period, though found on one stone; but both are as yet equally dumb and irresponsive oracles.
Various early inscriptions in the same old Celtic character as that engraved on the St. Vigeans' Cross are still to be found in Scotland, and particularly in the Western Isles, where it had doubtless been in general use, prior to the adoption of the later Church letters common to medieval Europe. Of this class are two stones at Iona, adorned with simple crosses, one of which has been made the subject of some very fruitless speculation. "No one of the inscriptions in Iona," says Mr. H. D. Graham, "has been so much written about as this, and antiquarians do not agree as to its signification. It is in the old Gaelic character, and has been usually interpreted into Donull fada Chasach—The cross of Donald Longshanks."[538] An older decipherer reads it, "Cormac Ulphada hic est situs," indicative of the sepulchre of Cormac Barbatus, one of the kings of Ireland, buried there A.D. 213; and a third assigns it as the memorial of a king of France, who according to equally credible tradition found his last resting-place in the sacred isle. Mr. Graham has accordingly designated it in his Illustrations of the Monuments of Iona, "the disputed inscription," though finding for it a new reading, which assigns it to a Macdonald of the Glengary line, A.D. 1461. The inscription reads: Oꞃ̄ ꝺo mail Ꝼaꞇaꞃic, or with the first word extended:
OROƖꞆ ꝹO MⱭƖɭ ꝻⱭꞆⱭRƖC
A Prayer for the servant of Patrick.
Its modest memorial is sufficiently indefinite, yet it may be assumed with much probability to mark the tomb of Bishop Patrick, whose demise is thus recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters, under A.D. 1174: "Maol Patrick O'Banan, Bishop of Conor and Dal Araidhe, a venerable man, full of sanctity, meekness, and purity of heart, died happily in Hy of Columkille, at a good old age."[539]
Bishop Patrick's Tomb, Iona.
Another rude and unsquared slab, with a slightly ornamented cross, bears the still simpler inscription: Oꞃ̄ ɑꞃ ɑꞃmɩn ϵoᵹɑɩn, armin, or more commonly armunn, being a brave man or chief. Extended it reads: