St Vigeans Museum was opened in 1960. Formerly the carved stones were kept inside the parish church, but they were moved to the museum when it was established. Many of the stones date from the Pictish period, but a few are 12thc. All of these appear to have been found built into the later church walls.

See: site for the church at St Vigeans for its medieval history and for the 12thc stones set in the fabric of the church.

All of the 12thc carved stones in the museum appear to have been carved about the same time, and many of the features parallel those found on fragments still at the parish church. The two stones carved with chevrons are probably both voussoirs, but not from the same archivolt, or even the same arch, as one appears to be for a larger arch, perhaps the chancel arch. Duke suggested that the Romanesque stones from the parish church were carved in the first half of the 12thc, while Fawcett et al. feel it can be narrowed further to the 2nd quarter of the 12thc.