What is recorded here

Half a mile from the last road, a ringed Latin cross is cut into a flat stone. The ring has hollow sectors and the cross rises slightly above its centre. A monastery grew around that place in the seventh century, and the unusual marking still stands inside the church wall.

A monastery at Lemanaghan (Liath Manchán) was founded in the 7th century by Manchán whose feastday is celebrated on the 24th of January (Ó Riain 2011, 429). Early Christian cross-slab mounted on the W face of the E wall of Lemanaghan church (OF015-004003-) located off centre to the N. Described by Crawford (1911, 152) as a ‘stone 26 inches (0.66m) by 20 inches (0.5m) by 4 inches (0.1m) thick, similar to the last, but having the unusual feature of a ringed Latin cross incised in a circle. There seems to be no other example of this combination. The sectors of the ring are hollowed, and the intersection of the cross is 1½ inches (0.03m) above the centre of the surrounding circle, which is 16 inches (0.4m) in diameter. This, like the last-mentioned, is placed on a grave west of the church’. To see a 3D model of this cross-slab, visit https://skfb.ly/owEtp Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 24 April 2014

Early Christian period, likely 7th to 9th century; the cross-slab may have served a liturgical or commemorative function, possibly associated with Saint Manchán and his monastic foundation.

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