Currus Sancti Conualli, stone, Renfrew

Grid reference

NS 494 678 (general (1km))

Six-figure easting & northing

249400 667800

Latitude

55.879804817580165

Longitude

-4.407736957794674

Altitude (metres)

5

County

Renfrewshire

Nearby places

Ladyacre, Inchinnan (0.22 miles)

Inchinnan, ~eccles. Inchinnan (0.28 miles)

St Conval's Church, Inchinnan (0.28 miles)

Inchinnan, parish (0.28 miles)

Renfrew, parish (0.83 miles)

Object Classification

Antiquity

Other

Is linear feature?

No

Notes

The NGR given is for the 'Argyle Stone' (OS Digimap) and 'St Conval's Chariot', so called by the sign placed beside these two carved stones. The Argyle Stone is so named because Archibald Campbell, ninth earl of Argyll, was captured nearby in 1685. The stones are not, however, in their original position, having been moved there by Lord Blythswood in the nineteenth century. One of the stones looks as if it might have been made as the base or socket for a standing cross. The other, slightly smaller stone is humped in a way reminiscent of a hogback, though much taller and shorter than a typical hogback stone. Both stones are covered in moss and it is hard to se whether or not there is any carving on the surfaces. They are enclosed by a large iron cage. Macquarrie notes that 'in northern England and elsewhere hogback stones sometimes lay in relation to upright monuments, and the group at Renfrew may have been intended as a composite grave marker of this type' (Ab. Brev.(Macquarrie), 348). The name Currus Sancti Convalli appears in the Aberdeen Breviary: it was a stone (lapis) on which the saint stood and was carried across the sea from Ireland to the shore of the River Clyde (ad ripam fluminis Clyde), where it remained. In 1510 it was believed that 'Many sick people are cured by the touch of this stone, or by washing in its water, as is seen daily until now; men and beasts are kept away from all kinds of sickness' (Ab. Brev. (Macquarrie), 239).

Relationships with other parishes

Within Renfrew, parish