The Eagle Stone waiting for the sea

The North Highlands contain many magnificent Pictish stones, most of them concentrated around the Moray Firth and the lands once controlled by the powerful northern Picts. The Eagle Stone outside Strathpeffer is neither the largest nor the most elaborately carved, but it is certainly one of the most enigmatic. This early symbol stone carries only two designs: a beautifully observed eagle and, above it, an arched object usually described as a horseshoe. We can see exactly what the Picts carved, but we have lost the language required to understand what they intended it to say.

You cannot drive directly to the stone, although it is only a short and relatively gentle walk from Strathpeffer. It stands on rising ground overlooking the valley towards Dingwall, where a bench provides a pleasant place to sit and enjoy the view. At first glance, the monument can appear rather modest, particularly when compared with the great Pictish cross-slabs found elsewhere around the Moray Firth. Its importance is not immediately obvious, and the nearby information gives only a brief introduction to the much richer collection of stories that surrounds it.

One tradition says that the stone originally stood farther down the valley and was moved to mark the graves of Munro warriors killed during fighting with the MacDonalds. Centuries later, the Brahan Seer supposedly foretold that ships would one day sail into Strathpeffer and secure their cables to the stone. Later versions made the prediction considerably more dramatic: after the Eagle Stone had fallen three times, the sea would flood the valley and ships would moor beside it. It is now said to have fallen twice, although nobody appears to have recorded when, why or what happened afterwards.

The stone is currently secured in concrete, which protects an important Pictish monument while conveniently preventing the later version of the prophecy from being tested. From its elevated position, the prospect of ships reaching it appears wonderfully absurd, because flooding on that scale would transform far more than Strathpeffer. Nevertheless, once you know the story, it is difficult to look at the concrete without wondering whether archaeology was the only consideration. On a North Coast Explorer tour, this unassuming stone becomes part Pictish mystery, part clan memorial and part unfinished disaster story.

To learn more, book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.