What is recorded here

West Galway holds a broken cross beside an old church, its shaft still standing while head fragments lie scattered at its feet. The surviving stone carries a crucifixion scene, knotwork and two serpents, proving the cross once rose more than two metres above the grave plot. It is not a complete monument but a wounded one, preserving enough shape and decoration to reveal the scale and ambition of the craft that made it.

Within a grave-plot called Leaba an Spioraid Naoimh (GA110-023002-), immediately W of Teampall Bhreacáin (GA110-010001-). Known as the West Cross, only the shaft and four fragments of the cross head survive. The former (Wth 0.45m, T 0.15m, H >1.5m) stands at SW corner of the plot, with the head fragments beside it, indicating a ringed and cusped cross c. 2.15m in height. The decoration includes a crucifixion scene on W face, along with knotwork and fret patterns, and a pair of serpents on the shaft. (Waddell 1973, 24; Crawford 1907, 212) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Updated by Olive Alcock Date of upload: 9 March 2016

A 9th- to 10th-century high cross, likely built by a monastic community associated with Teampall Bhreacáin, dedicated to Saint Breacán; its surviving shaft and fragments reflect a typical Insular Christian artistic tradition and are significant as a rare remnant of early medieval religious activity in the region.

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