Cross - Wayside cross

The National Monuments Service's description

Plain wayside cross with chamfered shaft and solid ringed head standing on S side of roadway incorporated into niche of wall which acts as the boundary wall of 'St. Feighin's School'. Described in 1928 as 'An uncarved cross with solid ring and chamfered edges; the height is 4ft. 7in. (1.38m) and breadth 1ft. 4in. (0.4m). It stands in a square flat socket stone in a recess in the road wall in front of the National School, a short distance S of No. 16' (Crawford 1928, 62, no. 17). The socket stone of this cross may originally have been the base of another cross and was described by Crawford as 'A small square socket stone which at one time stood on the roadside a short distance further to the S, but is now placed in front of No. 17' (Crawford 1928, 62, no. 18). Today there are no visible remains of a base for this cross.
This monument was described in 1980 as 'The cross is in two fragments; (1) head (dims. H 0.48m; Wth 0.44m) & (2) shaft ( H 0.86m; bae Wth 0.27m; top Wth 0.20m; T 0.15m) both of which are now set into a niche in the stone wall surrounding the National School on the S side of the modern roadway E of Fore village. The shaft tapers from the bottom upwards & is of rectangular cross section with chamfered edges. The head has a solid ring & only 2 arms survive , both damaged. It is quite plain although there may have been a slight chamfer at the edges. It is not certain that these 2 fragments are part of the same cross, they do not fit exactly and the stone looks somewhat different' (SMR file).

Compiled and updated by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 14 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.