Hilton of Cadboll Stone

In a letter[5] Sir George MacKenzie reported that the wind on 21 December 1674 had been extraordinary and that it broke a standard-stone that stood as an obelisk near an old church it was high about 12 foot, broad 5 and towards two foot thick The stone which is in the museum today is the top three-quarters of the original stone: the dark part at the bottom of the image is a copper housing which shows what the bottom quarter would have looked like.

A rearguard action by the Scottish antiquarian establishment succeeded in deferring the Trustees' acceptance and their releasing Macleod of Cadboll from his gift so that he could redonate the stones to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, which he did.

Meanwhile during 1998 excavation in the vicinity of the Hilton of Cadboll chapel site was undertaken by Kirkdale Archaeology (Paul Sharman and Jon Triscott) on behalf of Historic Scotland.

During this work approximately 40 fragments of carved micaceous sandstone were recovered; the likely origin for these was surmised to be from the lost cross face of the Hilton of Cadboll stone.

Subsequently, in 2001, Historic Scotland commissioned Kirkdale Archaeology (Dave Murray, Stuart Jeffrey, Meggen Gondek, and Angus Mackintosh) to undertake a further excavation.

Later in 2001 the lower portion of the cross-slab, along with several thousand more carved fragments, was recovered by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) during an excavation funded by Historic Scotland.

The presence and distribution of these fragments suggests that the original intention had been to dig out the entire stone and that, possibly many years after this had failed, defacing of the cross began in situ.

In parallel with the excavation, Historic Scotland also funded research carried out by Professor Sian Jones of the University of Manchester into the significance of Early Medieval Sculpture to local communities which concentrated on the historical fragmentation and movement of the Hilton of Cadboll monument as well its modern role in the production of meaning, value and place,[7] The excavation and subsequent analysis of the 'biography' of the monument was the foundation of a major monograph published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2008.

These samples were subjected to optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating coupled with the analysis of the stratigraphy in order to establish the age and content of the soil.