OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES
RECORDING
PRESERVATION
MOVING OR SHELTERING OF THREATENED CARVED STONES

OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES
The following is a statement of the objectives of the National Committee on Carved Stones in Scotland and of the principles agreed by NCCSS for recording and preserving historic carved stones.

The NCCSS was set up because of concern about the wide variety of threats that face the carved stones of Scotland. The NCCSS aims to draw attention to the threats and to encourage a common approach to the recording and preservation of carved stones.

Threats facing carved stones in Scotland include the following: weather; acid rain and other pollution; traffic; cattle; destruction and redevelopment of sites and buildings; vandalism; theft; rubbing; chalking; waxing; and well-intentioned but destructive cleaning, repair and restoration.

The NCCSS hopes to increase public understanding of the importance and interest of the carved stones of Scotland and of the threats that they face.

The NCCSS is concerned with carved stones of all periods and types and it will need to be sensitive to the differing and sometimes conflicting values invested in them. The members of the NCCSS and the institutions that they represent are primarily interested in the recording and preservation of carved stones both as sources of archaeological and for a whole series of aesthetic, symbolic, functional and sentimental reasons.

RECORDING
The NCCSS aims to encourage the compilation of lists of various categories of carved stones. Lists should consist of a brief record of agreed types of information on location, material, dimensions, nature of carved decoration, inscriptions, context and condition, in a standardised way appropriate to the class of stone.

In noting the condition of the stones, fieldworkers compiling the lists should seek to identify those stones that are at greatest risk and should describe the threats that they face. This information should form the basis of a list or lists of carved stones in urgent need of conservation or of re-displaying in a protected environment.

Such listing should be accompanied by a systematic programme of drawing and photographic recording.

Where national or local organisations are already carrying out programmes of recording, the NCCSS would hope to encourage co-ordination of approach and the pooling of information, particularly on carved stones under threat.

Priority should be given to the recording of important or particularly vulnerable stones or categories of stones.

Click here for more information on Recording Carved Stones.

Click here for details on Photographing Carved Stones publication.

PRESERVATION
The list or lists of carved stones in urgent need of conservation or re-displaying in a protected environment should be used to establish a programme for emergency conservation measures and/or relocation.
It is desirable to establish a regular programme for inspecting endangered stones.

It is desirable to establish programmes for the detailed monitoring of the changing condition of carved stones over time and to continue such programmes where they already exist.

Scientific research into the weathering and conservation of carved and architectural stones should be encouraged. No surface treatments or other methods of conserving carved stones should be adopted that have not been scientifically shown to be reversible or neutral in their effect.
Intervention should be no more than is strictly necessary for the preservation of a stone.

Nothing should be done that falsifies the documentary value of a stone.
Except in the most extreme cases, nothing should be attempted that would have irreversible consequences for a carved stone.

Any intervention, however minimal, should be recorded in an agreed and publicly available form.

It is important to raise public awareness of the dangers posed to carved stones by taking rubbings, impressions or casts or by chalking and by well-intentioned but destructive cleaning, repair or restoration.

The NCCSS should draw up a code of conservation advice for those with responsibility for carved stones on the basis of the findings of Historic Scotland's current research programme into the decay of carved stones and of other relevant scientific research.

MOVING OR SHELTERING OF THREATENED CARVED STONES
Urgent consideration should be given to providing shelter for important non-architectural carved stones at present in the open air. Architectural sculpture raises particular problems. It would not normally be appropriate to move architectural sculpture that forms an integral part of a surviving structure but important and threatened examples of more independent architectural sculpture such as statues in niches could be moved more easily. (Definitions of importance will be required but they would probably, for example, include most early medieval sculpture.)

Where there are good reasons for thinking that stones are on their original sites, or that they have been associated with their sites for historically significant periods, ways should be investigated of keeping them at those sites, or as close to them as possible.

It is only appropriate to consider building a shelter around an important and threatened stone either if moving it is likely to damage it or if it is still on its probable original site or on a very long-established site.

If the location of a threatened stone that is to be moved is believed to be ancient or otherwise significant, its archaeological context should be investigated and recorded when it is moved.

If a threatened stone that is an important landmark or feature in its present context is moved, it may be appropriate to erect a replica in its place after it has been moved.

If a stone is be moved, it should be moved to a protected environment that also provides security from theft and vandalism. Its new location should be easily accessible to visitors and should have adequate room for presentation. When carved stones with decoration or significant detail on more than one face are re-displayed indoors, they should be set up in such a way that all sides are accessible for study and photography.

When possible, relocated stones should remain close to where they formerly stood or lay, although for reasons of security, accessibility etc. it may be appropriate to group a number of carved stones from a particular locality in a single building or shelter. A museum, church, or other public building in the vicinity might be a suitable and secure place in which to preserve and display the stones.

If it is decided to group a number of stones from a particular locality together, the curatorial support of the local and national museums services and Historic Scotland should be sought.

Scheduled Monument Consent or Listed Building Consent may be required before a stone can be moved. If the stone is on private land the landowner's consent will be needed.

Click here for more information on Protecting Carved Stones.

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