The Govan Stones


The Govan Stones is an internationally important museum collection of early medieval carved stones displayed at Govan Old Parish Church in Govan, 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.

Description

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.
Forty-five stones existed as late as the 1970s. However, fourteen 'recumbent gravestones', 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, four standing crosses and twenty-one recumbents.
The centrepiece of the collection is the Govan Sarcophagus, which is thought to commemorate St. Constantine, the son of Pictish king Kenneth MacAlpin. It features carvings of a Pictish-style stag hunting scene and various stylised animals. Carved from solid sandstone, the sarcophagus is the only one of its kind from pre-Norman, Northern Britain.

History

The stones have been dated back to the 9th–11th centuries, a period when Vikings raided the Clyde region and the territories beyond. The contemporary Annals of Ulster tell us that Vikings destroyed the Clyde Britons' twin citadel at Dumbarton Rock, strategically located at the confluence of the Clyde and Leven rivers, in AD 870 after a four-month siege. This fortress, known as Alt Clut or Alt Clud in the local Northern Brittonic language, was the centre of an ancient Brittonic kingdom.
With the king of Alt Clut, Artgal, either killed or enslaved by the Vikings, Govan and Partick, further up the river, gained great strategic importance as a new dynasty was established for the successor realm, known as the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Govan, already an ancient Christian site with burials dating back to AD 450-600, became an important ecclesiastical centre for this new kingdom.
The presence of the five 'hogback' stones in Govan suggests regions around the Clyde and Leven were influenced or settled by Vikings in the period after 870.
These large sandstone blocks, seemingly designed to resemble Scandinavian longhouses, were found exclusively in areas of northern Britain where Vikings settled. Nowhere else are there hogback stones quite as large as the five in Govan.
"It underpins this idea that this British kingdom of Strathclyde has some strong connections with the Scandinavian world. My feeling is that this is meant to represent a lord's hall or a chieftain's hall." - Stephen Driscoll, Professor of Historical Archaeology at Glasgow University.
The sarcophagus was discovered in Govan Old's graveyard in 1855, when a grave was being dug to the south east of the church. Recognising their significance and to protect the stones from the elements, they were moved from the surrounding graveyard and placed on display within the church itself in 1926. Until that point, the stones had lain in the churchyard for over a thousand years.

Creation of the site

It is believed that the site's earliest Christian activity began sometime in the 5th or 6th century AD. Archaeological excavations in the 1990s uncovered two early Christian burials beneath the foundations of a later church; these burials were radiocarbon-dated between the 5th and 6th centuries AD.
Despite this early activity, it wasn't until the 9th and 10th centuries that Govan Old rose to prominence: indeed, there are few historical references to Govan in the interim, though there appears to be one reference included in Symeon of Durham's Historia Regum, compiled sometime in the 12th century AD. In it, Simeon records the return of the Northumbrian army from 'Ovania' after attacking Dumbarton Rock in AD 756.
Originally, the Annals of Ulster recorded Dumbarton Rock as the centre of the Brittonic Kingdom of Alt Clud from the 6th century AD until the later 9th century AD.
In AD 870, the Annals of Ulster record a Viking raid on Dumbarton Rock; after this point, the kings of Clyde Rock are no longer discussed.
In 872, the Annals of Ulster instead refer to the kingdom of Ystrad Clud, better known as the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which appears to mark the shift of political power from Dumbarton Rock further upstream to Govan.
It is possible that a predecessor of the 12th-century royal estate at Partick and the now-destroyed Doomster or Dempster Hill played a part in this power shift.
The size of the graveyard and the sheer amount of early medieval sculpture suggest that the church was supported by royal patronage. Because the site has been in continual use since it was first established, it is difficult to tell what the original church looked like, but excavations in the 1990s revealed the foundations of a wall next to the south-east corner of the present building.
Based on depth and method of construction, it is thought that these foundations, which consist of boulders placed in a trench with smaller stones used to create a level surface, supported an early medieval wooden church .

The Govan Sarcophagus

The Govan Sarcophagus is a monumental stone coffin with an ornately carved exterior; it was rediscovered when the church sexton was digging a grave in the south-east corner of the churchyard in December 1855, surrounded by roots from two elm trees.
No human remains were found with the sarcophagus, so it is thought that it was buried at an earlier date to protect the monument, perhaps during the Scottish Reformation when iconoclasm was common practice. Today, the sarcophagus is on prominent display in the Govan Stones museum.
The sarcophagus is supposed to have been dedicated to the patron saint of the church, St Constantine. There is much debate over which Constantine is the patron, and whether it is Constantine of Strathclyde, but most scholars agree that the coffin most likely would have been dedicated to Causantín mac Cináeda or Donald f. Constantine.
Because of its highly decorated exterior, it is assumed that the coffin was meant to display the remains of the saint as a focal piece in the church.
The coffin itself depicts Insular iconography, taking inspiration from different styles that were then popular in the Irish Sea Region.
One face of the sarcophagus shows a hunting scene of a horseman chasing a stag, perhaps accompanied by a dog, a motif frequently used in Pictish art that is thought to convey an association with royalty and power.
The sarcophagus also shows an animal trampling another two creatures: a snake and what may be a wolf; the angular decoration of the triumphant animal has led many scholars to suggest that this is a ‘Lamb of God’ motif.
Two panels depicting beasts in various configurations are found on the other long face of the sarcophagus: in one, four ‘beasts’ are pseudo-mirrored across the vertical and horizontal axes of the panel, though there are differences in each beast's design.
In the second panel, two long-necked animals cross necks and interlace their tongue/ears with the other beast's tail; similar motifs, where beasts cross legs, necks, or other body parts, can also be found in Pictish sculpture.
The rest of the space on the sarcophagus is filled with panels of median-incised interlace, some of which represent snakes, which a relatively common motif in Insular sculpture, thought to be a symbol of death and resurrection.

Govan Hogbacks

There are five hogbacks at in the Govan Stones museum at Govan Old Parish Church.
While the earliest Govan hogback, known as Govan 2, is considered to date to the early 10th century, the later four hogbacks are thought to date to later in the 10th.
The five hogbacks in Govan Old are generally known as Govan 2, Govan 3, Govan 4, Govan 5 and Govan 6. All were discovered within the footprint of Govan Old's early medieval churchyard.
  • Govan 2 is the smallest, and probably oldest, of the Govan hogbacks. It was lent to the British Museum in 2014. It has been dated to the early 10th century. It has two rows of tegulation with concave, contoured lines. It has a band of interlace beneath the rows of shingles. The interlace pattern is not the same on either side. It is not continuous on either side. This is the only hogback at Govan with stopped-plait interlacing. The stopped plait on this hogback is characterized by a series of small, separated elements with pellet fillers. It also has a running ring-knot interlace with frets. On the other side, the sections of four-cord plait are stylistically reduced to a contoured diagonal bar crossed with a bar and four small pellets flanking it.
  • Govan 3 has been re-carved at some point in its history, although likely still in the early medieval period. The re-carving appears designed to make the stone resemble a single beast. Originally, it may have looked similar to the Brompton hogbacks, with large beasts gripping the ends of the stone. Govan 3 is massive. It has a full-bodied, 3-dimensional end-beast with legs. This single animal straddles the monument from one end to the other.
  • Govan 4 has, in a similar manner to Govan 3, been re-carved, particularly crudely, to look like a single beast. Govan 4 is also characterized by a single end-beast. Its head faces outward, an uncommon feature in hogbacks. The animal's four bent legs point toward its head. The roof ridges resemble a spine and the rows of tegulation are like scales.
  • Govan 5 has a pair of gripping beasts on the panels at both ends, although one end is very worn. Traces of Govan School interlace surround the panels, which may represent the backs of the beasts. There is a pronounced roughly circular depression in the centre top of this stone, which seems to post-date the early medieval period. The tegulation, seemingly designed to resemble wooden roof shingles or tiles, on this hogback is in good condition. Govan 5 has two end-beasts, one at either end. The beasts' faces and bodies are shown in profile with jaws gaping open, their legs intersecting along the base. This is the only known hogback with end-beasts in this position.
  • Govan 6 is much eroded, presumably largely due to its long exposure to the elements. The tegulation is distinctive, with concave sides. Despite the weathering, one end appears to have a dragon- or serpent-like beast that faces outwards from the end of the ridge. A matching design may have graced the opposite end, but this has been removed, either accidentally, or as part of the process seen on Govan 3 and Govan 4, whereby the end-beasts were recarved or removed to make the hogback as a whole resemble a single large beast. It is 2.4m in length. As with Govan 3 and Govan 4, Govan 6 may have had its original end-beasts or end panels removed and recarved to make it into a single front-facing creature.