Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Cross - High cross
Kells, County Clare, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Kells
- County
- Clare
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Cross (1916)
- Coordinates
- 52.95716, -9.02407
- SMR number
- CL017-088003-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Named ‘Cross’ on the OS 25-inch plan (1897) - which appears to show its location c. 8m to the NW of a rath (CL017-088002-) - and similarly recorded on the Cassini edition (1916) of the OS 6-inch map. Noted by Westropp (1900-2, 139; No. 44) who recorded that, ‘ … the head of a bossed Celtic cross [CL017-088003-] and the holy bush [CL017-088001-] which gives the place its name, remain near a large rath [CL017-088002-], with a souterrain [CL017-088004-] …’ An eroded limestone wheeled-cross head (L c. 0.71m; Wth c. 0.68m; T c. 0.1m) described by MacNamara (1900, 32) as ‘rudely cut and apparently not quite finished … the back is uncut, but the front is ornamented with five circular bosses marked with concentric circles and formed into a Celtic cross by means of incised lines of no great depth’.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Eve Campbell
Date of upload: 21-10-2025
References
MacNamara, G. 1900 The ancient stone crosses of Ui Fearmaic, Co. Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 30, 22-33.
Westropp, T.J. 1900-02 The churches of Co. Clare and the origin of the ecclesiastical divisions in that county. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Series 3, vol. 6, 100-180.
Swinfen, A. 1992 Forgotten stones: Ancient church sites of the Burren and environs. Dublin. Lilliput Press.
Nearby in the register
- Ritual site - holy tree/bushunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Souterrainunder 1 mi
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.