What is recorded here

Half a metre of worn stone, no taller than a child’s knee, holds a triple outline cross whose centre spins into four arms and whose end flares into a looped, fretted curve beside an animal head. In Clonmacnoise it likely marked a grave someone walked past for generations before erosion softened its edges and forgetting began to take it back. The cross does not need a name carved beneath it; its shape still pulls the eye inward, as if death itself had learned to turn like a wheel.

Clonmacnoise grave-slab inventory (1992) number: CLN00335 Dimensions: H 0.48, W 0.42 Triple outline cross with median line and circular central expansion with four arm spiral. The surviving terminal expansion is slightly larger than semicircular and has fret patterning and looped ends. Adjoining the terminal is an animal head. No inscription. Evidence of discovery: Rubbing by O' Neill 1854 Condition: Fragment badly marked by erosion and very worn. National Monuments Service, Photo number: 81- Stokes, M. (1878) Christian Inscriptions in the Irish language, Vol 1, p XIII, no. 31 Lionard, Early Irish Grave-slabs, PRIA 60(1959-60), p 134, Fig 25, no. 11. The Clonmacnoise inventory was compiled by the Office of Public Works. A copy of the record for this slab is available for inspection in the relevant Archaeological Survey of Ireland (SMR) file. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Date likely to the 9th–10th century AD, associated with early Christian monastic activity in Clonmacnoise. The cross design may have had both liturgical and symbolic significance, reflecting Christian iconography and possibly used as a grave marker or commemorative monument.

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