What is recorded here

Knockaunnamban on Omey Island once held a cruciform slab with matching crosses on both faces, but the stone has vanished. Elcock drew its D-shaped terminals and notched roundel in 1883, preserving what the sea, men or time has since taken. Its resemblance to High Island slabs suggests one craftsman or a forgotten removal, leaving the graveyard empty of its marked centre.

Now missing, this cross-slab is reputedly from the graveyard known as Knockaunnamban (GA021-005----) on Omey Island. Drawings of it by C. Elcock in 1883 (SMR file) indicate that the slab was roughly cruciform in shape and that it was decorated on both faces. One face bore an expansional Greek cross with D-shaped terminals. A central roundel was notched to form a cross with round-ended expanded arms and a superimposed linear cross with bar terminals. The other face had an equal-armed Greek cross with widely curved terminals on the arms and head, while that at the end of the shaft was D-shaped (Fisher 2014, 226, no. 64, Figs. 64a, 64b). White Marshall and Rourke (2000, 160, Fig. 126) noted that this cross-slab was very similar to those on High Island, particularly the cross-slab (GA021-026007-) at the holy well (GA120-026006-), suggesting that they were made by the same craftsman or that this cross-slab was removed from High Island at some point. (Wakeman 1891, 354, Fig. 32, Pl. I; Higgins 1987, vol. II, 299-300, no. 28) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 8 April 2016

Likely dating to the early medieval period, this cross-slab may have had a Christian funerary or commemorative function. Its cruciform shape suggests ecclesiastical significance, possibly associated with a monastic or burial site on Omey Island.

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