Cross-slab in Clonaltra West

Fragment of early Christian cross-slab standing in group of trees containing bullaun stone and fragment of a second cross-slab (WM036-042007-) in N quadrant of ecclesiastical enclosure (WM036-042004-) at Clonaltra West. The interior of the enclosure is depicted as a graveyard (WM036-042006-) on the OS 6-inch map and local tradition records that this graveyard was also used as a children's burial ground (WM036-042008-). Site of holy well (WM036-042005-) 290m to W. Fragment consists of the lower portion of a slab (H 0.4m x Wth 0.42m x T 0.05m) decorated with a ringed-cross lying at the base of a bullaun stone. The lower portion of the slab contains the outline of a cross-shaft with a ringed cross rising from the top of the shaft. A small stud is depicted at the junction between the shaft and cross-head. The top half of the ringed cross is missing. Described in 1974 as a ‘yellowish sandstone slab found leaning against a double bullaun’ and consisting of an ‘inscribed slab, roughly shield-shaped, bears what appears to be the bottom portion of a ringed cross in low relief, with the arms and upper two-thirds of the ring broken off’ (Hicks 1974, 158). According to Hicks there was ‘a small standing stone or gravestone with no observable markings, almost buried beneath a heap of smaller stones in the south-eastern quarter of the site’ (ibid.). Today a large tree marks the site of this orthostat which is incorporated into the trunk of the tree. Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 08 August 2014

Early Christian period, likely 7th to 9th century; the cross-slab may have served a liturgical or commemorative function within a monastic or ecclesiastical site, possibly associated with Clonaltra monastery.