The octagonal base and baluster shaft support a carved cube stone. Before restoration the stones were covered in moss lying on the ground in the owner’s garden. The bronze horizontal dial is new.
Stone sundials were common in Scotland in the 17th and 18th centuries. They stood in the gardens of great houses, and in public places. The geometric form of the sundial would reflect the popular interests of the day in science and mathematics, and many displayed complex multiple dials. Originally this particular sundial may have belonged to a country estate near Falkirk. The present owner has had it for many years and in 2023 decided to restore it.
After careful cleaning the three separate stones that make up the pedestal showed very little damage. Erosion of the stone by weathering was greater on the cube stone than the others. The cube has a sunk chamfer on each corner, which creates the pleasing effect of octagonal faces. The vertical faces could have had four individual dial carvings but there were none. Instead the top face has a circular recess for a horizontal dial and this was missing.
Making the new bronze dial and gnomon began with creating the design drawings, then laser cutting and photoetching, and finally dark colour patination. The design of the dial closely follows the mathematical delineation of an 18th century sundial, plus lettering inscriptions chosen by the owner. The sundial needed a new stone platform. Turning the dial round in its recess to read the proper time finds the north-south alignment. The specialist firm of Graciela Ainsworth Sculpture Conservation and Restoration carried out the conservation work on the stones, and installed the sundial on site. Macmillan Hunter Sundials advised on Scottish sundial history and mathematics, and designed, supplied and fitted the new bronze dial.