What is recorded here

Half a metre of dark schist stood at the foot of a grave where bones from the early 1100s to late 1200s had lain. Someone cut a cross into both faces, notched the edges, and set a smaller forked cross inside a roundel, as if marking the dead and the living at once. The stone may have been reused from an older life, carrying a forgotten shape into a new burial. It left the island later, but a copy now holds its place in the graveyard sand.

In the SE end of the graveyard (GA021-026026-) on High Island. Recorded by Fisher (2014, 85, 201, no. 1, Fig. 7.1), this cross-slab (H 0.97m; Wth 0.31m; T 0.02-0.03m) of garnet mica-schist formed the footstone of Grave 1, which contained skeletal remains dating from the early 11th to the late 12th century. It was probably reused. It tapers slightly to a rounded base and expands with convex armpits in the upper part to form a minimal cross with a squared head. Both faces are decorated. The E face bears irregular notches which define the head of an outline Latin cross. Irregular bosses are evident in the upper armpits. A central roundel encloses an equal-armed linear cross, the three upper limbs of which terminate in forks. This decoration on this face is similar to that on the E face of the headstone on Grave 2 (see GA026-021033-). On the W face a similar linear cross is set on a boss. This cross-slab is now in the care of the OPW (Athenry depot, Co. Galway, see GA084-151011-). A replica has been placed on site. (White Marshall and Rourke 2000, 147, no. 12) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 18 November 2015

Probably dating to the early medieval period, this cross-slab likely served a Christian funerary or commemorative function, given its position as a footstone in a graveyard. The use of a cross suggests a connection to early Christian burial practices in the region.

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