This attractively produced little book is an up-to-date and comprehensive guide to all the Pictish and Early Christian carved stones known from the former county of Caithness. They have been listed in what might be called the 'traditional' order established by The Early Christian Monuments of Scotlund: Classes I-III plus Isabel Henderson's suggested Class IV, followed by such unclassified stones as the Reay 'pillar' and two Norse rune-slones. Twenty nine stones are listed, all of which, except the lost Castletown stone, are illustrated by photographs and sometimes reproductions of old engravings. The dimensions of each monument, its find-spot and principal referellces are listed, and short descriptions are given, more idiosyncratic than those in ECMS or the RCAHMS Inventories.

A short introduction by Robert Gourlay, former Highland Regional Archaeologist, emphasises the stones' importance both archaeologically and artistically, and touches on the vexed question of their preservation for future generations. The authors' enthusiasm is rightly praised - in addition to cataloguing the carved stones, they had to raise the necessary money to cover printins costs (organisations which gave financial support to the project are listed on the inside of the front cover).

Apart from its comprehensiveness, the most valuable aspect of the book is the illustrations. Many of the photographs are by Tom E Gray: of superb quality, and justly reproduced. This is particularly useful for the study of the Caithness stones, several of which are more than ordinarily difficult to photograph (the two Pictish cross-slabs in Thurso Heritage Museum, for example). Photographs of the stones in the national collection in Edinburgh (a surprisingly large percentage of the area's total) have been supplied by the National Museums of Scotland.

Caithness' carved stones are an eclectic group, and in their desire for completeness, the authors have included the portable stone altar found in the sea off Wick Harbour, and an undecorated free-standing cross at Reay, the latter only dubiously early medieval in date. The most recent finds are covered, and the extraordinary Ballachly cross-slab, found in 1996, with its probable Chi-Rho cross and Early Christian fish symhol, appears on the front cover. I would personally have been cautious about including the supposed rune-stone newly discovered at Portormin, as it appears to be incised with Anglo-Saxon runes - Caithness' genuine runestones, both from Thurso, employ the Norse furthark, as would be expected. I suspect a fake, written perhaps by a fan of The Hobbit.

A useful guide to a small but important group of monuments, which deserve detailed study, it would be good to see this book's format extended to those other areas of the country whose carvetl stones are still inadequately published. The authors are to be congratulated for bringing this interesting material together in a single publication, and David Henry of the Pinkfoot Press deserves praise for extending his early medieval catalogue by a reasonably priced work of the expected high standard.

Niall M Robertson