What is recorded here

Cooley Cross Heritage Committee records identify number 4 as a wheel-head cross-inscribed slab, locally called the Tee Stone, beside the south church wall. Whether that is the fragment Lacy rubbed or another lost piece remains uncertain. What is clear is that a carved cross once stood among ordinary graves before breaking, moving or being forgotten.

The early ecclesiastical site here consists of a sub-rectangular shaped graveyard inside of which are a number of earlier features. The site is located on excellent land sloping to Lough Foyle to the E and is traditionally claimed to have been founded by St. Patrick (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 399). To the W outside the entrance to the graveyard (DG021-008001-) is a tall, plain, ringed high-cross (DG021-008005-). Inside the graveyard are the remains of two churches (DG021-008002-/003-) and a mortuary house or tomb shrine (DG021-008004-). One of the churches served as a medieval parish church (Leslie 1937, 265). Unlocated broken cross-slab described by Lacy (1983, 261) as 'a fragment of a cross-slab with a with a wheeled-cross was found lying in the interior of the South Church (DG021-008002-)'. In 1980 the location of the slab was described as a 'loose fragment of a carved wheel cross was found in the graveyard lying beside the wall of the church' (DG021-008002-) (SMR File). The condition of the slab (approx. dims. H 0.3m x Wth 0.45m) was described in the 1980 survey as 'broken off so that only top and part of arms survive' (SMR File). This cross-slab has not been located. Listed by Herity (1997, 94) as Cooly 03 where it was recorded as 'not found'. A graveyard plan drawn by the Cooley Cross Heritage Committee shows a 'wheel-head cross-inscribed slab' located n of the centre of the S wall of the S church where it is marked with the number 4 and known locally as the 'Tee Stone'. This may be the same monument as the cross-slab described by Lacy (1983, 261). The attached image (DG021-008018-_01.jpg) is a rubbing taken by Lacy of the cross-slab, copy of the rubbing in the SMR File. The attached image (DG021-008018-_02.jpg) is a plan of the church and graveyard commissioned by the Cooley Cross Heritage Committee showing location of cross-slab No. 4 which may be the remains of the slab described in the Archaeological Survey of Donegal. The attached image (DG021-008018-_03.jpg) is a close up of the section of the plan of the church and graveyard commissioned by the Cooley Cross Heritage Committee showing location of cross-slab No. 4 which may be the remains of the slab described in the Archaeological Survey of Donegal. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 25 February 2015

Probably dating to the early medieval period, the cross-slab may have served a Christian commemorative or instructional function within a former monastic or ecclesiastical setting. Its presence suggests a connection to early Irish Christianity, possibly linked to local saints or pilgrimage traditions.

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