What is recorded here

Inishkea North is a small western isle where a ninety-centimetre cross-slab stood in a field fence near St. Columbkille's Church before going to the National Museum of Ireland. Françoise Henry found it facing southeast, its upper half carrying a cross whose ends unfold into paired spirals and whose shaft continues below into another spiral. It is not a monumental church monument but a compact carved stone, perhaps made for a threshold, a memory or a local worship place, and its displacement makes the isle both poorer and wider because the design now travels while the sea keeps the lost setting.

Originally located near St. Columbkille's Church (MA023-015001-), on the SW side of Inishkea North, now in the National Museum of Ireland. This cross-slab (H c. 0.9m) was found by Françoise Henry (1945, 132 & 145; Pl. XXVIII; Slab 5) ‘near St. Columba’s Church…standing in the fence of a field’, with the carved surface facing to SE. The exact location is uncertain but it appears to have been downslope to SE of the church. The design, positioned on the upper half of the slab, consists of a cross with terminals that expand to paired single-turn spirals, and an extension of the shaft below the lower arm, ending in an identical terminal. Attached image: MA023-015003-_01.JPG: Image published by Henry (1945, Pl. XXVIII, Slab 5) Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 28 July 2023

Date likely to the early medieval period, possibly 8th to 10th century AD, based on stylistic features of the cross-carving. It may have served a Christian commemorative or liturgical function, associated with the nearby church dedicated to St. Columbkille.

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