Site Record

St Davids 14 is a large, unshaped, quadrangular pillar of gabbro, incised and inscribed on both broad faces. It is now located in The Lapidarium at Porth y T'r, St Davids Cathedral (NPRN 306). It was first noted in the late 16th century, as Arthur's Stone, when it was reportedly standing on end at the Burrows. T was next moted placed upside down in use as a gatepost at Penarthur Farm. The stone is one of four (see NPRNs 423521, 423522, 423523) in the vicinity of Penarthur Farm, the location of a possible chapel and cemetery site (NPRN 423519). The stones are generally accepted to have been originally placed upright around a holy well to the east of the small parcel of land belonging to the Bishop and known as Maenarthur, where the stones were first recorded. It is unclear whether this was Ffynnon Penarthur or Ffynnon Parc-y-Berth.

Dimensions are given as 117cm height x 67.5cm width x 30.5cm diameter. The stone has a gate-hanger hole near the centre of its carved face. The upper part of face A is carved in its left corner with a horizontal Greek-letter inscription, which continues diagonally in the top-right corner. The inscription has been translated as `Alpha and Omega, Jesus Christ?. Underneath is a thin, equal-armed outline Latin cross within a double ring. The outer ring projects from the ends of the cross-arms and is decorated with a border fret-pattern, similar in style to that on St Davids 15 and 16 (NPRNs ). Below it is a lightly-incised horizontal inscription in book-script, which has been translated as `Gurmarc?.
Face C is incised with a thin outline, equal-arm ring-cross, whose arms project slightly beyond the ring. The carving is thought to be 11th-century in date.

Sources include:
Edwards, N. 2007, Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales

N Vousden, 30 October 2018