This field guide has been obsessively well researched and contains mounds of detailed information on Pictish symbol stones and, indeed, Pictish symbols. This is the painstaking work of a dedicated and erudite enthusiast. Location maps, details of museums (with opening times and charges) and a helpful index make this book eminently user-friendly. This is an essential tool for anyone with an interest in Scotland's early history. It is, however, a book generally geared towards those already interested in the Picts rather than the uninitiated tourist. It will appeal greatly to the membership of our Society.

In his introduction Alastair Mack dates Class I stones from the 5th or 6th century to the 8th and Class II mid- or late 7th to the 9th century. He opines the symbol stones were almost certainly gravestones and 'by the time they were being carved on stone the majority ... [of symbols were] family and therefore personal badges'.

Before detailing the stones, the symbols themselves are first examined with a note of the frequency and locality of occurrence by class (I or II) and by present local authority area. This is also visually presented by a distribution map for each symbol shown by class.

The core of the Field Guide comprises detailed entries for each and every symbol stone, including lost stones. The stones are presented in a standard format giving name (and number where applicable), class, clarity of carving (except, for some reason, for stones in museums), accessibility, the stone's symbols, its size, an OS grid reference (of present position) and 'principal reference/s' for the stone. There are then notes of discovery and a description of the stone with particular emphasis to the symbols. Entries include directions on how to find the stones, and there are some maps of the more elusive ones. The entries are divided into sections, each being the present local authority area. Highland is subdivided into seven administrative areas. Within each section entries are listed more-or-less alphabetically (except Crichie before Craigmyle, p. 73). Stones in museums are listed en bloc under the name of the museum (e.g. Rosemarkie 1 appears under Groam House Museum).

The details of each symbol stone appear well set out and are accurate throughout. There are a few minor points of interpretation that may be questioned, such as the inclusion of carvings on living rock at Anwoth (p. 137) or Dunadd @. 136) - are these really Pictish symbol stones? The carvings at Covesea and in the Fife coastal caves are rightly excluded. The case of bovines vs. bulls on the stones from East Lomond Hill, Kingsmills and Lochadrill has been cogently argued by Leslie Alcock in the past -- Mack sees all as bulls. Some would question if these 'bull stones' are actually symbol stones or stone plaques, stelae? And are the fine hippocamps of Ness, Orkney and the Ulbster Stone really the same symbol as the 'fish-monsters' of Upper Manbean and Anwoth? Why include the reconstructed stone on the Brough of Birsay (p. 132) when the original stone has already been detailed under Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (p. 30)? Why is there no proper entry for Burghead 5 -- the best example of the Burghead bulls? These, and others, are matters of opinion.

Three out of four of the so-called 'principal reference/s' are from Alien and Anderson's Early Christian Monuments of Scotland (1903) -- still generally regarded as tfie best reference book of Pictish stones, and recently re-released (1993) by the same publisher as this Field Guide. As a bonus there is a voucher in the Guide for a £10 discount on the price of the reprint of that seminal work. Of the other references, I would not however necessarily agree that that (and there is usually only one) given by Mack is the best for each stone. To give one example, Mack cites Robert Stevenson's entry in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland 1971 for the stones from Westfield Farm, Fife in preference to the more detailed paper by J.N.G. Ritchie and PR. Ritchie in Proc Soc Antiq Scot with its high quality plates. Again, however, deciding what is a 'principal reference' is purely a matter of opinion. References chosen by Alastair Mack are nevertheless sound.

In summary, this is an excellent guide to the symbol stones and a tremendous source of information - do not venture into Pictland without it.

J.R.F. Burt