Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Cross-slab
Inishmurray, County Sligo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Inishmurray
- County
- Sligo
- Country
- Ireland
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- SMR number
- SL001-001081-
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
This cross-slab was recorded by Wakeman (1893, 99, fig. 47) in the Men’s Cemetery (SL001-001029-) within the ecclesiastical enclosure/cashel (SL001-001001-), but its whereabouts are now unknown.
Cross slab fragment (0.45 m by 0.45 m). Wakeman’s drawing (fig. 47) depicts a cross with a short, simple shaft, but arms and head with expanded terminals from which diverging spirals are developed. All members carry a simple two-strand interlace pattern, with triquetera-like terminations and a simple knot at the intersection. Two much smaller, plain crosses are incised to the right of the principal cross (Wakeman suggests that there were two others in a symmetrical or opposed position left of the main cross on a missing fragment of the stone).
The design closely resembles that of a cross-slab (SL001-001077-) – now in the Schoolhouse/OPW conservation store – and it is possible that these are one and the same slab.
The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in:
Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press.
Date of upload: 20 February 2018
References
Wakeman, W.F. 1893 Survey of the Antiquarian Remains on the Island of Inishmurray. Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (special volume 1893. London.