St Andrews Sarcophagus
The Saint Andrews Sarcophagus is a Pictish stone from the second half of the 8th century. It was found starting in 1833 during work at St Andrew's Cathedral in Scotland, and the surviving pieces were reassembled in 1922. It is now on display in the Cathedral museum in St Andrews, near where it was found.
Originally, the sarcophagus had two side panels, two end panels, four corner pieces and a roof slab. The roof slab is gone, and parts of one side, one end panel and a corner piece are missing, so what remains is mainly L-shaped. It measures about 177 by 90 cm (70 by 35 inches) and is about 70 cm tall. The stone is local sandstone.
The surviving side panel shows, from right to left: a figure breaking the jaws of a lion, a mounted hunter with a raised sword aiming at a leaping lion, and a hunter on foot with a spear and a hunting dog about to attack a wolf. It isn’t certain if the first two figures are meant to be the same person; old drawings sometimes show them as such.
The surviving end panel is simple, basically a cross with four small panels between the arms. Fragments of the missing end panel are similar but not identical to the surviving one.
The sarcophagus was found in the cathedral grounds near the St Regulus Chapel. The cathedral was built in the 1100s but was stripped of its altars and images and abandoned after 1559 during the Scottish Reformation. Much of its stonework was later reused in buildings around St Andrews.
In 1833, workmen digging a grave found the large fragments about 6 to 8 feet underground. Over the years, casts were made of the pieces, and the original pieces were reassembled in 1922.
Historians differ on who was buried in the sarcophagus. Many think it was made for the Pictish King Óengus (Onuist), who died in 761, but it isn’t clear whether it held his body, that of his predecessor Nechtan mac Der Ilei, or someone else.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 10:45 (CET).