What is recorded here

Cross-slab in Churchland is a small sandstone block bearing an incised cross potent, its lower end plain, now housed inside the C of I church in County Offaly. St. Kieran the elder founded the place in the fifth century, giving the slab centuries of quiet witness before Crawford measured it in 1916. It may have marked a burial, a boundary or a prayer corner, but that much has faded. What remains is the cross itself, still cut and visible, waiting to be read.

Founded by St. Kieran the elder in the fifth century (ITA Survey 1943). In 1916 Crawford described this slab as 'a small block of sandstone bearing an incised cross potent, the lower extremity of which is plain' (Crawford 1916, 166). This cross-slab is now housed within the C of I church. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Probably dates to the early medieval period, likely between the 7th and 10th centuries, given the style of the cross potent. Such stones were often used as markers for Christian sites or graves and may have had a role in early Christian worship or territorial demarcation.

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