What is recorded here

The northernmost of four cross-slabs stands beside St Brecan’s Grave in Eoghanacht, its tall stone bearing a ringed Latin cross and a faint name that still argues between scholars. Cronmail or Cronmaoin, the letters resist final judgement, yet the clean cut of the cross and the repeated circular terminals suggest a confident hand working for someone who wanted to be remembered. Rain or reverence, the slab has faced both since before either could be measured.

This is one of four cross-slabs (see also GA110-023021-, GA110-023022- and GA110-023023-) now associated with St Brecan’s Grave (GA110-023009-); it is the northernmost example. It is a large tall rectangular slab (H 1.34m; Wth 0.49m; T 0.18m) bearing an incised two-line ringed Latin cross with a circular centre and roughly T-shaped terminals. Below this a second transom on the shaft ends with circular terminals. The shaft itself rises from a base that is very similar to that on the cross-inscribed pillar (GA110-023021-) to its S. An almost illegible inscription runs just underneath the ringed cross. Petrie read it as CRONMAEL or CRONMAOL (Waddell 1973, 21, no. 14) but Higgins (1987, vol. 2, 363, no. 85) suggests it reads CRONMAOIL or possibly CRONMAOIN. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 9 March 2016

This cross-inscribed pillar likely dates to the early medieval period, associated with Christian tradition and possibly linked to the veneration of St Brecan. Its carved cross suggests a liturgical or commemorative function, common in monastic or burial contexts of the time.

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