St Helen's Church, Knight's Stone

  AOC recorded this stone on behalf of Historic Environment Scotland as part of work at the site of St Helen's Church, Cockburnspath, in spring 2021, following a report of possible damage to a hogback stone at the site. This stone, probably late medieval in date, bears the incised image of a figure, described in 1914 as "a warrior in the attitude of prayer. His sword has a straight guard, and it seems possible to recognise the texture of chain armour on part of the slightly rounded surface lying within the outlines of the arms and upper part of the body... Unfortunately, there is neither helmet, shield, name, nor date, whereby to identify this erstwhile knight of long-forgotten days." (Reid, A. 1914, in PSAS 48, p220). The detail is very hard to make out today and the stone had gone unrecognised for many years.