Scottish painted pebbles

Painted pebbles are a class of Early Medieval artifact found in northern Scotland dating from the first millennium CE.

They are small rounded beach pebbles made of quartzite, which have been painted with simple designs in a dye which is now dark brown in colour.

Good experimental results were achieved in the early 2010s using a pitch-like material that is produced as a residue from the burning of peat.

This can be found widely on the surface of the earth in the north of the British Isles, and its use as a heating material on in Shetland has already been proven for the early Iron Age.

[1] In the Life of St. Columba it is recorded that he visited King Bridei in Pictland in around the year 565 AD and, taking a white stone pebble from the River Ness, he blessed it and any water it came into contact with would cure sick people.