Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Cross
Beckfield, County Laois, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Beckfield
- County
- Laois
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- NULL
- Latest-edition OS map
- NULL
- SMR number
- LA028-073----
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Unlocated cross within townland described by Carrigan as 'At the north-west of Beckfield, on the bounds of Tinneclohy, there are two adjoining fields, one called 'the wart field', the other Aughnacrusha. In the former there is a rough natural rock, 3 ft. square and rising 2 ft. over the surface of the land; the centre of the top surface is pierced with an artificial cavity 16 in. long, 12 wide and 8 and a half deep and slightly rounded at the corners. There is water in this cavity almost always, and as the people believe it possesses virtue for the curing of warts, they call it 'the wart well'. Taken in connection with the name of the adjoining field, viz. Aughnacrusha, the ford or field of the Cross, it must be assumed that the rock with its cavity, was the base of an ancient cross. There is no tradition of any churchyard having ever been here; however a rath in Aughnacrusha, dismantled, but not entirely obliterated, may have been the site of a burial ground' (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 355)
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 17 December 2007