Cross-slab

The National Monuments Service's description

Cross slab discovered in 1975 and described by Fanning and Ó Corráin (1972, 14-16) as follows; 'This stone is also of the local purple-red sandstone but has a sightly more gritty appearance than the ogham pillar and measures 80cms in length, 40cms in width and 15cms in thickness. It is decorated on one face only, with a rather poorly-executed ringed-cross from which is appended a double-grooved stem. The arms of the cross are also composed of double grooves which intersect at the centre and extend to meet the ring. One of the two vertical lines of the cross is not in line with the stem. The grooving is similar to that on the cross placed on the ogham stone and is clear and fairly deep averaging 5mms in depth and 7mms in thickness. The stone itself is well dressed, with rounded edges along the sides. Both the upper and lower ends are broken off and so the upper portion of the ringed-cross and the base of the stem are missing, The high, rounded, right-hand corner seems untouched, and this suggests that the top of the stone may have had a semi-circular or gabled shape originally. Both the ogham stone and cross-slab have been re-erected and secured to the internal north wall of the nave of the church. A possible tenth/eleventh century dating, coeval perhaps with the first stone church, might be tentatively assigned to the re-use of the stone as a cross-slab and the smaller cross-slab may also belong to the same period [KE029-157001-].

See attached plan and photograph courtesy of Laurence Dunne

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 27 April 2022

References

Harbison, P. 1972 The Building History of Ratass Church, Tralee. Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 5, 5-13.

Fanning, T. and Ó Corráin, D. 1977 An ogham stone and cross-slab from Ratass church, near Tralee. Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society 10, 14–18.