Cross - Wayside cross

The National Monuments Service's description

In a private garden which forms a low-walled green area at the E side of the S road of Tullaroan crossroads. The decorated cross (KK018-008002-) is the most southerly of the two limestone crosses, the other (KK018-008001-) is located c. 3m to the N. Mason (1819, vol. 3, 609-10) describes the crosses as being, ‘About a quarter of a mile to the north of the church [Tullaroan medieval church KK018-032001-], at the cross roads in the village or hamlet of Tullaroan, two handsome stone crosses (represented in the annexed engravings), erected by the Grace family, are still to be seen, one having on the centre an alto relievo of our Lord, with a cloth round his waist, and on the shaft the mutilated remains of an inscription from which nothing can now be gathered. The other cross has also an alto relievo figure of the Virgin, or of some female saint, in long drapery. Of this latter cross a tradition prevails, that a French lady of high rank, who followed one of the Grace family from France, on finding he was married, built this cross as well to reproach his inconstancy, as to evince the piety of her resignation to disappointment’. According to the OS Letters (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 213-14) of 1839, at Lady’s Well, located c. 420m SE of the crossroads, ‘a Patron was held on the 15th of August till within a few years. This (a) patron was previously held at the old cross a little to the north still. This old cross remains, but broken in two parts, each standing (in) a pedestal, the lower part of the shaft measuring two feet eight inches [0.8m] in height and ten inches [[0.26m] in thickness; the top part measuring one foot eight inches [0.5m] in height and same thickness with the other. Part of one arm of the cross only remains. This portion of the cross has a rude and mutilated representation of the Crucifixion engraved in it’. The cross fragments described in the OS Letters appear to be the same as noted by Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 495-6) c. 80 years later, which suggests that the wayside crosses described by Mason where broken between 1819 and 1839.
Of the most southerly cross only a portion of the cross-shaft survives, which has been inserted into the socket (dims. 0.26m x 0.21m) of a limestone cross-base. The cross-shaft (H 0.8m; dims. 0.22m x 0.17m) is quite worn and has chamfered angles (Wth 0.08m). The cross-base is roughly square (H 0.2m; dims. 0.68m x 0.66m) but unlike the cross-base to the N the upper edge of the base is chamfered (Wth 0.05-0.06m).

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 27 March 2017

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

Mason, W.S. 1814-19 A statistical account or parochial survey of Ireland, 3 vols. Dublin. Faulkner-Press.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1930 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Kilkenny collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Bray.