What is recorded here

DIAMRAN is carved beneath a ringed cross on a broken Gallen slab, preserving a name that vanished before the stone itself disappeared. Graves rubbed the marks in 1872 while it lay in a grassy mound, but Kendrick recovered only half of it decades later after the other piece had been lost. The remaining fragment still stands beside Gallen church, carrying a cross whose curved angles make a small diamond in the centre and leaving the missing half as an absence the eye completes.

Cross-slab from Gallen that was first recorded by J. Graves in 1872 and was located in 1949`in an out-house near the gate-lodge' (Macalister 1949, 72) and described by Petries as`lying in a low, grassy mound...near the village of Ferbane...Drawn by M[argaret] S[tokes] from rubbings taken by the Rev. James Graves and Mr Hennessy' (Petrie/1872, 74). Macalister recorded that `In 1907 Mr. Armstrong visited the site...[and] identified...the DIAM slab [no. 851]...Mr Kendrick did not find the DIAM stone... [and that] stone is missing. But he found another slab [no. 852]...and there can be no reasonable doubt that it is the missing half of the DIAM stone' (Macalister 1949, 72). The slab was decorated with `an approximately equal-armed cross in a square' (Macalister 1949, 72) and was accompanied by an inscription which reads DIAM[R{A}N] that can be expanded to read DIAMRÁN. This slab was recorded in 1949 as being located on site at Gallen church (OF014-029008-). Cross Slab, two fragments remaining, lower left section missing. East Wall, West Facing, South off Centre. Diagram Number 26 Inventory of Carved Stone ID 000026 Dimensions: Height 0.79m Width0.72m Cross slab. Incomplete. Sinister two lower edges straight and even, angle of lower sinister cut across. The design consists of a double outline ringed cross, the angles of the cross are curved, crating a lozenge effect in the centre. There are small pellets in the two sinister quadrants and at the now barely discernible centre. Outside the plain ring the arms are rectangular in the outline. The design is enclosed by double incised rectangular frame. In the lower sinister quadrant outside the ring there is a horizontal inscription which reads 'RAH' or 'RAN'- now hard to trace. Description from Inventory of Carved Stone, National Monuments Service Archive. Kendrick, JRSAI 69 (1939) p. 11 (Fig 4) References : Macalister, R. 1949, no. 851 and no. 852 Macalister, R. 1949, 72-73 drawing concise discussion Petrie, G. and Stokes, M. 1878 74, Plate 73, Fig. 175 drawing minor reference Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 August 2012

Probably dating to the early Christian period (5th–9th century), the cross-slab likely served a religious or commemorative function, possibly marking a burial site or sacred space. Its location near a low, grassy mound suggests a possible association with an ancient burial or ritual site.

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