Hunterston Brooch

The Hunterston Brooch is a highly important Celtic brooch of "pseudo-penannular" type found near Hunterston, North Ayrshire, Scotland, in either, according to one account, 1826 by two men from West Kilbride, who were digging drains at the foot of Goldenberry Hill,^[1] or in 1830.^[2] It is now in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Made within a few decades of 700 AD,^[3] the Hunterston Brooch is cast in silver, gilt, and set with pieces of amber (most now missing), and decorated with interlaced animal bodies in gold filigree.^[3] The diameter of the ring is 12.2 cm, and in its centre there is a cross and a golden glory representing the risen Christ, surrounded by tiny bird heads. The pin, which is broken, can travel freely around the ring as far as the terminals, which was necessary for fastening; it is now 13.1 cm long, but was probably originally 15 cm or more.^[4]

The back of the brooch has a scratched inscription in runes in the Old Norse language, probably 10th century, "Melbrigda owns this brooch"; Maél Brigda, "devotee of Bridgit" is a common Gaelic female name, though seen as male by other sources.^[5][6] Much later ownership inscriptions are not uncommon on elaborate Celtic brooches, often from Norse-Gael contexts. The Hunterston Brooch is clearly an object of very high status, indicating its owner's power and prestige. With the Tara Brooch in Dublin and the Londesborough Brooch in the British Museum, it is considered one of the finest of over 50 highly elaborate surviving Irish Celtic brooches,^[7] and "arguably the earliest of the ornate penannular brooches from Britain and Ireland".^[8]