Royal Deeside
Kinord Cross Pictish Stone
Introduction
The Kinord Cross stands on the north shore of Loch Kinord, in the Muir of Dinnet. It's a Pictish cross-slab, dated to the end of the Pictish era, most likely the 9th century, which makes it well over a thousand years old. The carving has held up remarkably well. One face of the kite-shaped slab carries a relief cross filled with interlace knotwork, crisp and clean despite the centuries.
There's a curious thing about it. Only the side facing the loch is carved. Plenty of Pictish slabs have a cross on one face and a set of older pagan symbols on the back, like the famous stones at Aberlemno. This one is just the cross. It's thought there may have been a small chapel nearby, and the cross was once linked to the chapel at the old Kinord Castle out on the island.
It hasn't always stood here. In the late 19th century it was taken to Aboyne, and in 1959 it was brought back to the loch, set as close to its original spot as anyone could work out.
Location
The cross sits on the shore of Loch Kinord, in the Muir of Dinnet reserve in west Aberdeenshire, about five miles east of Ballater. It's an open-access site, reachable on foot along the trails that run round the loch and between Kinord and Loch Davan. The Little Ord trail, marked with a yellow Pictish-carving symbol, is the most direct, roughly 20 minutes there and back through birch woodland, longer if you do the full circuit. Park at the loch-side car park off the B9119 or at the Burn O'Vat visitor centre further along.
What's nearby
You're in a corner thick with old stones. Half a mile from the cross are the remains of Old Kinord, an ancient settlement with hut circles and field systems still visible in the ground. The crannog and the site of Kinord Castle sit out on the loch itself. Further afield, the Tullich symbol stone is about three miles east near Ballater, and the Migvie Pictish stone, carved with its own cross and symbols, is around four miles north-west. Tomnaverie stone circle, a recumbent circle with views to Lochnagar, is roughly the same distance. And the Burn O'Vat, a giant glacial pothole, is a mile up the road and well worth the short walk.
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