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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Cross-slab

Gallen, County Offaly, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Cross-slab, Gallen, County Offaly, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Gallen
County
Offaly
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.26272, -7.82328
SMR number
OF014-029152-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Possible 8th-century cross-slab (dims. L 0.54m x H 0.35m x T 0.05m) with a four-lined cross-of-arcs (int. diam. 0.27m; ext. diam. 0.36m), also forming a cross pattée design, with small central hollow (diam. 0.025m) contained within a triple circle recently discovered from Gallen graveyard (OF014-029002-). The cross-of-arcs design may be based on the cross surrounded by a wreath, or on the XP monogram contained within a circle. The largest collection of this type of cross-slab comes from Gallen of which 8 were previously recorded (Lionard 1961, 112). Gallen abbey (OF014-029001-) stands in the centre of this graveyard that was built near the site of an Early Christian monastery (OF014-029008-) founded by St. Canoc in 492 AD. A group 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 in 1934-5 in a field to the north of the graveyard (Kendrick 1935). The cross-slab has been moved to the National Museum of Ireland for safe storage (NMS Reg. No. 2022:118).

To see a 3D model of this cross-slab, visit; https://skfb.ly/oxsXI

Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien

Date of upload: 24 August 2022

References

Lionard, P. 1961 Early Irish grave-slabs. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 61C, 95-161.

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

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Cross-slab in Offaly All County Offaly records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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