Know here as the Key Pattern, or a meander or meandros (Greek: Μαίανδρος) it is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Such a design is also called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these are modern designations. On the one hand, the name "meander" recalls the twisting and turning path of the Maeander River in Asia Minor, and on the other hand, as Karl Kerenyi pointed out, "the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form". Among some Italians, these patterns are known as Greek Lines.

'J. Romeilly Allen was of the opinion that the essential difference between the classical Key patterns and those used by the Christian Celts of Britain and Ireland, consisted in the introduction of diagonal lines by the latter.' - George Bain, Celtic Art, The Methods of Construction.]]>
The interlacing of human form and Celtic knots evolved from laws forbidding drawing portraits of human figures as this was tantamount to copying a work of the creator, “God the Almighty,” explains Bain in his book Celtic Art. Similarly, it was forbidden to draw animals or plants. Angels and mythic creatures, on the other hand, were not of the earthly realm. And Saints had departed this realm. Thus, Celtic knot patterns were used to represent most of the human form, while heads, appendages and tails were often depicted using more life-like representations.]]>
Open all year (free)
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Visible all year -it is just inside the churchyard gate to Castle Brae, outside the museum doorway. In the museum itself are fragments of two Pictish stones found at Edderton Churchyard in 1992, and also a fragment of the Nigg Stone, found in 1999.]]>