Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Cross-slab
Gallen, County Offaly, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Gallen
- County
- Offaly
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 53.26473, -7.82414
- SMR number
- OF014-029109-
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 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
West Wall, West Facing, South off centre.
Diagram C3
Inventory of Carved Stone ID 000088
Dimensions: Height .395m Width .40m
Cross slab. Incised double outline compass drawn cross or petal design with tips truncated, enclosed in triple outline circle. Intersections of petals occur short of circular hollow in centre, creating a lozenge figure.
Description from Inventory of Carved Stone, National Monuments Service Archive.
Possible 8th-century cross-slab with a four-lined cross-of-arcs, also forming a cross pattée design with central hollow, all of which is framed within a triple-lined circle (Kendrick 1939 Fig. 3 A 78). Cross-slab (A 78) described by Kendrick (1939, 19) as a; 'Slab L. 1' 4" (0.4m); double line petals; intersections short of pitted
centre; triple containing circle'. Gallen was the site of an Early Christian monastery (OF014-029008-) founded by St. Canoc in 492 AD. A large collection of early Christian cross-slabs (OF014-029003-) dating from the 8th/11th-centuries were uncovered along with the site of an early medieval church (OF014-029008-) during excavations at Gallen in 1934-5. This cross-of-arcs type cross-slab is one of nine cross-slabs to come from Gallen monastery. A large selection of cross-slabs were inserted into a display wall on the site of the excavated medieval church.
To see a 3D model of this cross-slab, visit; https://skfb.ly/oxtwL
Revised by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of revised upload: 24 August 2022
References
Kendrick, T.D. 1939 Gallen priory: excavations 1934-5. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 69, 1-20.
Nearby in the register
- Cross-slabunder 1 mi
- Cross-slabunder 1 mi
- Cross-slabunder 1 mi
- Cross-slabunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.