Cross (present location)

The National Monuments Service's description

Wayside Cross (WM004-008----) 870m to the NNW and two wayside crosses (WM004-011----/025----) 650m and 770m to the SSE respectively. The top of the cross may to have been removed from the field and mounted to the wall of the chancel of St. Feighin's RC church in the village of Fore (WM004-035017-). The cross base has been moved from original location in field to bend in road c. 40m SE of original location as shown on six-inch OS map. A new cross has been inserted into the base of this cross. This wayside cross was drawn by Du Noyer (George Victor Du Noyer, “Calvary cross on road side North of Fore Abbey Td. Of Clonageeragh. Sheet 4/3,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, accessed January 27, 2020, http://rsai.locloudhosting.net/items/show/23409.) in the 19th century. Described in 1928 as a 'portion of the head of a small cross with solid ring or disc, also a flat socket stone 2ft. (0.6m) square. When Du Noyer made his drawings this cross head was in better preservation than at present; he shows it with a six rayed cross or star in a circle on one side; on the other are the remains of a sunk trefoil pattern. In the field west of the road at a sharp turn 1 mile N. of Fore and half a mile S of No. 8 (WM004-008----)' (Crawford 1928, 59-60, no. 9). Described in 1976 as 'Only the base (dims. 0.6m x 0.4m) with socket (dims. 0.22m x 0.15m; D 0.15m) now survives with a fragment of a chamfered arm (L 0.26m; Wth 0.2m; T 0.1m), this lies in a field beside an old disused road. In St. Feichin's Church in Fore fixed to the E wall of the chancel is the head of a cross (WM008-097005-) which resembles the description given by Crawford for one side of the cross head no. 9. Only one side can now be examined as the other is cemented to the wall. The solid ring (dims. Wth 0.377m; L 0.4m; T 0.07m) has a crudely fashioned quatrefoil cross in double outline with double circular frame chamfered' (SMR file). In 1980 the site was described as, 'only the base of this cross remains. It is a small rectangular block of limestone, with a deep rectangular socket cut into it. The socket is cut through the stone thickness i.e. it is a hole through the stone. The stone is lying in a field W of the roadway. There are some small stones lying beside the socket stone but none of them is a fragment of a cross. There is no sign of the cross' (SMR file).

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 24 April 2015

References

Crawford, H. S. 1928 List of the Wayside Crosses near Fore, County Westmeath. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 58, 57-62.