Edinburgh's Runestone

Edinburgh's Runestone
"Princes Street Gardens" runestone
Created	1010–1050
Discovered	Lilla Ramsjö, Morgongåva, Vittinge parish, Uppland, Sweden
Present location	50 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland
Coordinates	55°56′38″N 3°11′12″W / 55.943863°N 3.186608°W / 55.943863; -3.186608
Rundata ID	U 1173
Runemaster	Erik (A)
Text – Native
Old Norse: Ari ræisti stæin æftiR Hialm, faður sinn. Guð hialpi and hans.
Translation
Ari raised the stone in memory of Hjalmr, his father. May God help his spirit.

The Swedish Runestone, designated U 1173 in the Rundata catalogue, is an 11th-century^[1] Swedish Viking Age runestone which was located in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, below Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, within a fenced enclosure adjacent to Ramsay Garden.^[2] Due to security concerns it was removed from there on 19 December 2017 and in the Autumn of 2020 was re-located at 50 George Square, Edinburgh just outside the University of Edinburgh's Department of Scandinavian Studies.^[3][4][5]

On 22 March 2023 the runestone was officially unveiled,^[6] after delays due to restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of Coronovirus.^[4]

Originally from Lilla Ramsjö in present-day Morgongåva, Heby Municipality, it was donated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1787 by Sir Alexander Seton of Preston and Ekolsund (né Baron 1738–1814),^[7] and was presented to the Princes Street Proprietors by the Society in 1821.^[8] It is one of three Swedish runestones in Britain; the other two (U 104 & U 1160) are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in England.^[9][10][11]

The carving on the stone features a centrally located cross, encircled by a serpent. The runic inscription is carved within the serpent, whose head and tail are linked with the cross' shaft. There are 18 runestones in Sweden which bear similar features and are believed to have been carved by a runemaster called Erik.^[4][12]

There are two additional crosses carved into the runestone – one on the right-hand edge of the stone, and one at the front of the stone, above the inscription, on the right-hand side. They do not exhibit the same level of craftsmanship and are believed to have been added later, perhaps in the 19th century.^[13][12]

Transliteration and transcription:

In 2014 a replica of stone U 1173 was made in Sweden and placed where the original would have come from, at Morgongåva in Uppsala, by a group called Hebys "nya" runsten,^[15] led by project manager Mats Köben, an amateur archaeologist and enthusiast. This replica was carved by runemaster Kalle Dahlberg (Runistare) who visited Edinburgh in 2013 to measure the stone and record the design, before carving it from pink granite, sourced from Vätö Stenhuggeri at Adelsö Island.^[16][17]

• List of runestones

• Anon (J. Dillon & J. Jamieson) (1822) 'Account of a stone with a runic inscription, presented to the Society by the late Sir Alexander Seton of Preston, and of some other inscriptions of the same kind in the Isle of Man', Archaeologia Scotica, 2.2, pp. 490–501
• Graham-Campbell, James (2004) ''Danes...in this Country': discovering Vikings in Scotland', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 134, pp. 201–239
• McNaughton, Adam (1980) 'Edinburgh's Runestone', Northern Studies, 15, pp. 29–33
• Sveriges Runinskrifter, (1953–1958), ix, pp. 653–656

• Canmore Entry
• Information from the Samnordisk runtextdatabas, at Runinskrifter.net (in Swedish)
• Complete information about the U 1173, rune carver Erik's other rune stones and the story of the work to create a copy
• A short video documenting the removal of "Edinburgh's Travelling Runestone".