Cross-inscribed pillar

The National Monuments Service's description

At the foot of a natural limestone bluff. According to O'Donovan, this cross-slab stood nearly in the middle of the island, between Cill Éinne/Killeany and Cill Rónáin/Kilronan, and it was located about '40 paces' to the SW of two ecclesiastical buildings (see GA110-159001- and GA110-159005-). It consisted of a ‘stone 6 feet [1.8m] in height with a beautiful cross within a circle sculptured on it’ (O’Flanagan 1927, vol. 3, 396). An accompanying sketch indicated that the slab bore two crosses. Crawford (1913, 155) listed it but recorded it as being lost. Higgins (1987, vol. 2, 377, no. 97), based on O'Donovan's sketch, described the uppermost cross as a two-line Latin cross with splaying terminals on the head and arms; the lower end was open ended. There was a rectangular protrusion at the centre of the shaft. The lower cross was separate from the upper one. It consisted of an encircled Greek cross that was composed of the arcs of a circle. A short shaft extended from the bottom of it and a pair of lines ran at right angles off it. During fieldwork in the area in November 1984, a large recumbent pillar stone (L 1.7m; Wth 0.27m; T 0.2m) was found c. 35m to the S of the church (GA110-159001-). Its upper face was smooth. It proved impossible to lift the slab to examine the lower face. However, this may be the slab to which O'Donovan (O'Flanagan 1927, vol. 3, 396) is referring as it is of a similar length.

Compiled by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 2 February 2023

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

Crawford, H.S. 1913 A descriptive list of early cross-slabs and pillars. (cont.) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 43, 151-69, 261-5, 326-34.

Higgins, J.G. 1987 The Early Christian cross slabs, pillar stones and related monuments of County Galway, Ireland, 2 vols. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 375. Oxford.

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

Higgins, J.G. 1987 The Early Christian cross slabs, pillar stones and related monuments of County Galway, Ireland, 2 vols. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 375. Oxford.

Crawford, H.S. 1913 A descriptive list of early cross-slabs and pillars. (cont.) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 43, 151-69, 261-5, 326-34.