What is recorded here

Cross stands unfinished on a graveyard wall in County Galway, its sandstone arms still bearing the drooping figure of Christ half-carved from the rock. The hillock where it once rose has been quarried away, leaving the cross displaced but unbroken. What was taken from the land did not erase the shape; it only moved the place where the shape must be seen.

Although marked on OS 6-inch maps 65m WNW of a church (GA016-013001-) and graveyard(GA016-013002-), this high cross has been fixed on the wall at the SW corner of the graveyard (pers. comm. Dr. Christy Cunniffe, 22 May 2013). Its original location (GA016-013006-) appears to have been on the summit of a hillock (Topgr. Files, NMI) but this has since been quarried away. It consists of the unfinished head of a sandstone cross (Wth 1.2m, H 1.4m) some 0.25m in thickness. The short arms appear to spring from a small solid ring. Both the arms and shaft are decorated with volutes. One face bears the outline of a figure in high relief with drooping outstretched arms and the head tilted slightly over the righ shoulder; evidently an unfinished figure of Christ. (Neary 1914, 125, no. 76; Crawford 1918, 176; O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 28; Higgins 1987, 278, P1. 46b; Harbison 1992, 9-10, no. 3) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Revised by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 29 May 2014

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